Don't Doubt the Chicks
by Candified Chaos
Summary: The ship has crash landed in an unknown planet that even Allura and Coran can't recognize. Though considering all the pretty girls, the guys seem to be enjoying themselves...until something awful happens and now Allura and Pidge have to fight to get their guys back or lose them forever. Hints of Allura x Shiro
1. Chapter 1

Wanna know the number one thing that ticked Allura off right at that moment? Not the fact that someone had been fooling around with the ship's controls so they ended up smashing into a meteor and breaking most of the ship's engines, no... it was the fact that Lance was currently standing perfectly straight up and saluting nothing as he sang 'London Bridge is Falling Down'. It's not that he was a bad singer or anything, it was just that it was hard to concentrate on trying to stop the ship from crash landing when that was blasting in her ears.

Even if he wasn't singing it as loud as he possibly could, Allura wasn't sure she'd be able to stop the ship from crash landing into a foreign planet anyways. The engine was really screwed up and the crystal was getting overworked. Luckily though, she was able to activate the shields a little bit to avoid much damage to the passengers inside the ship and to try and avoid any damage to the planet or inhabitants.

"Is everyone okay?" Shiro asked after the ship landed in the purple mud of the planet, not creating much damage thankfully, but instead it just planted itself in the mud. However, it was unnoticeable to them that the ship was slowly starting to sink in the mud.

"Yeah.." some of the team's members said. Lance was still standing upright and saluting somehow. Keith had been holding onto the wall to avoid from falling just like Shiro. Pidge and Hunk tumbled over, Pidge landing on top of Hunk, very grateful it wasn't the other way around. Allura was grasping onto the control panel to stop from falling too while Coran was on his knees now.

Though a few of the members didn't say anything, it was obvious no one needed immediate attention or anything, they just had a few cuts and bruises.

"What planet did we land on?" Pidge asked Allura curiously before letting out a groan as she ended up rolling off Hunk and onto the ground.

"I'm not quite sure..."Allura confessed as she tried to use the ship to scan the planet but it didn't work, "I believe I used up all of the energy left of the ship to create the force field."

"Well let's look around then and see if you and Coran are able to identify which planet it is." Shiro suggested, knowing that those two would know better than any of the members in Voltron. Mainly because they only knew of the planets in their solar system and the few that they've actually visited.

Everyone nodded their agreement and got back up, except for Lance who was already standing, then headed towards the exit of the ship.

When they got out, they got to see their surroundings for once. All around them and the ship was somewhat deep in mud, very deep and very dark purple mud. There was no way you could jump from the ship's exit and onto the yellow grass that was showed. There were lots of red trees where they landed as well, probably stretching out for miles just by the feel of it.

"Guess we'll have to walk through." Lance said before anyone could say anthing and put his foot in the mud, which immediately started to sink into it when it did. The brunette squeaked lightly as he jumped back, trying to pull his leg out but he found that it was stuck.

Keith sighed at him, not having anything to say to him because it was just...surprising that Lance would just randomly stick his foot in some unknown alien goop that resembled mud? Actually it wasn't, just stupid.

Hunk held back his own sigh as he walked over to where Lance got stuck, putting his hand under Lance's shoulders then using his strength to bring him up and placed him back on the ship. Lance was unharmed, but his leg was now covered in the purple mud and he gave it a look of disgust.

""Thanks!" Lance exclaimed with a dorky little grin and pat Hunk on the stomach. Hunk rolled his eyes but couldn't help grin a little himself, like Lance's smile was contagious. Which it probably was.

"You're welcome." Hunk said to him then looked at the mud again, "How are we going to get out though?" He questioned.

No one said anything at first and Allura frowned, trying to figure out where she may have seen this mud before but it wasn't too familiar.

"Well it's sticky.." Keith mumbled, staring at the mud.

Lance snorted at him, "No duh, Sherlock."

"Let me finish." Keith said and sent Lance a short glare at the insult, "Since it's sticky, why don't we put something hard on top of it and use it as a bridge?"

Lance snorted again as if to say it was a stupid idea even when he didn't really think it was. He just liked pissing off Keith.

"No, I'm not too sure." Coran said, piping up as he twirled the edge of his mustache, "I don't think this is normal mud..I'm pretty sure it's like what you Earthlings may call quick sand."

"Seriously?" Pidge groaned as she pinched the bridge of her nose, seriously doubting whether the universe actually liked Team Voltron.

Shiro's head dropped a little, feeling the same as Pidge but a bit more hopeful than the girl, "Then the ship is sinking too, isn't it?"

"Yep! That is quite right!" Coran nodded in agreement, still keeping the enthusiasm in his voice despite the pain in the butt situation we were in, "However the ship has enough force to break out of this quick sand...if the engines were working and we were able...to well...use the ship."

Then the groans happened again until Allura spoke up, "Come on guys, go grab your lions and take them out. We'll try and fix the ship when we're at least not trapped anymore."

Shiro nodded then looked at the other paladins, who just gave the same nod back, showing they understood.

The five left the entrance and headed for their hamgers, quickly hopping into their lions so they could fly out and hopefully fix the ship as fast as they could so they could continue on with their journey. None of them really liked being stuck somewhere like this when there were more people they needed to help.

However, there was one problem...

The part of the ship that the lions were in? Already in the mud.

A lot more groans came from the five paladins, everyone now considering whom the universe favours in this fight. The five left their lions then grumbled a bit as they made it back to where they left Allura and Coran...but they weren't there anymore.

"What?" Shiro questioned with a really big frown as he looked around the place for them, not liking that they were missing from his sight especially on an unknown planet like this. His head turned back and forth as he searched for the too, his frown worsening when he saw nothing and eas starting to get worried. They were capable of handling themself..he couldn't underestimate them. But he didn't want to underestimate this planet either..

His worried and nervous thoughts were cut iff as a flash of pink appeared in front of him and the next thing he knew...he was flying in the air with the rest of the paladins.


	2. Chapter 2

Lance didn't see it coming, but he certainly didn't mind flying through the air like a bird, beside all of his other paladins...that was until he landed head first into a tree.

"Ugh..." Lance groaned, the lower half of his body was freed but the upper half was stuck in a tree. Luckily, the wood..or whatever it was, wasn't too hard so it didn't hurt him all that much. Or at least not enough to give him a concussion, he was still pretty dizzy though and could see birdies flying around his head. It took a moment before he came out of the tree, getting the help of his good friend Hunk again. Lance ended up falling back down on his butt when he was out, sitting down on the really soft grass. Man..the grass felt like wool.

"What the heck was that?" Keith asked with a slight grumble as he pushed himself off up the ground into a standing position, immediately on high alert as he clutched his bayward in his hand but it wasn't yet activated just in case...Allura had told him before that Alteans believed in peace first. True, Keith wasn't from Altea, but Allura and Coran were taking care of them and Keith knew that he had to go by their rules.

"Not sure.." Shiro mumbled, already standing beside Hunk and Lance. Pidge was slowly getting up at well as she adjusted her glasses and looked around for any threats, but no one was there. At least that's what it seemed like to their eyes but they started to hear little giggling from behind the trees. Frowning a little bit, Shiro slowly walked over to the trees, going first to throw him in harm's way instead of the other's doing it. He was quiet as he looked behind some of the trees, trying not to be noticed as he looked around unable to actually see anything, but Shiro was smart enough than to let his guard drop.

His head moved around in the directions, the paladins behind him completely silent, also ready for a fight but no one had their baywards activated just yet either. Shiros' frown worsened as he slowly took another step in, still looking for whatever made the noise but he still couldn't quite locate it.

"Oh there you guys are." A voice piped up from behind the five paladins, making them all jump back and spin around to fight, but they instantly calmed down when they saw that the owner of the voice was Allura and Coran was beside her. "Why didn't you take your lions?" Allura asked with a light frown when she thought they didn't follow her orders.

"Sorry Princess, that part of the ship was already under the mud." Shiro answered before anyone else could, "but how were you two able to cross over here?" he asked.

"Them? What about us too?" Lance whined, since that still wasn't explained to them.

Allura raised an eyebrow at them, looking surprised for a moment and opening her mouth to reply to the question but she was cut off by another giggle which was followed by a whole lot more giggles.

"Why..they brought us over here." Coran answered for Allura.

"..They?" Keith questioned with a frown, all of their eyes turned towards Coran and Allura now so none of them noticed the people who started to come out of the forest.

"Yes. They." Coran nodded and pointed behind the paladins, all who slowly turned their heads around to see what he was talking to.

Lance squeaked at the sudden appearance of eight people and ended up jumping into Keith's arms, who immediately dropped him with an annoyed look forming on his face. Lance looked like he was gonna get mad at Keith for dropping him, but that anger soon washed away as a blush took over on his face when he saw who the eight people were.

They all had human features, two legs, two arms, a stomach, a chest, hips, hair, a human sized head, two eyes, a nose, and a mouth but no ears. They also weren't coloured the way humans were though. They looked more like marbles by the way their colours would swirl with white. Each of them were different colours too, one was pink, one was blue, one was green, one was red, one was yellow, one was purple, one was magenta, and one was orange. Though the main thing that seemed to perk Lance's interest and make him blush was the fact that all eight of them...were really hot girls in bikini like outfits.

"Why hello there~" Lance said, his little blush fading as he tried to put on one of his charming faces to go along with his voice, but it really wasn't working. Even so, the girls still giggled at him and that made him get a little grin on.

"Who are they?" Keith asked, looking over at Allura with the expectation that she would know, definitely not trying to be as charming as Lance was.

"They are..the inhabitants of this planet I believe." Allura answered simply to show that she didn't actually know, "But they mean us no harm."

Keith frowned but shrugged, accepting Allura's judgement as the orange one took interest in him, walking over and smiling at him but he just gave her a weird look.

"Well, assuming it was you, thank you all for helping us out of there." Shiro said politely to them with a smile.

"You're welcome." The purple one replied with a little giggle, sending him a flirty look as she walked over to Shiro. He pretended not to notice the flirty look but didn't really fight as she came over and got curious about his metal arm.

"Wow!" she exclaimed and touched it, "This is so hard! You must work out a lot."

Shiro chuckled sheepishly at that, "Not really..well I mean I do but this is because I was kidnapped by the Galra and they replaced my actual arm with this." he said, realizing that he didn't catch himself when he mentioned the Galra even though he should've just in case.

"Really? Wow you must be so brave!" The girl exclaimed and clutched onto his metal arm and Shiro blushed a bit but kept smiling, both completely oblivious to the little glare Allura sent them.

Soon each of the girls were talking to one of the guys, two girls with each guy. Coran had left to go try and find supplies though and no one had followed. Pidge and Allura were talking amongst each other though about how to repair the ship since the girls were ignoring them but those two didn't exactly want their attention so it didn't matter much to them.

"Lancey~ you're so smart." The green one said to him flirtily, clutching on to his arm and Lance just looked smug.

"Wow! Keith! You're so handsome!" The orange one smiled up at Keith, who looked kind of shy but didn't really say anything to it.

"Hunk you're so..hunky~" The blue one looked up at Hunk who was blushing and seemed a bit shy like Keith but not as much.

None of the guy's turned away the female's attention though, but they rarely did get a girl's attention like this since they were always in space so Allura and Pidge didn't stop them since Coran was at least looking for supplies plus the girl's might have some information though. The two were definitely not above making fun of them.

"Oh my goodness..." Pidge giggled to Allura after they decided to wait for Coran before talking about fixing the ship again since they would need his help too, "Keith is blushing like a drunken man."

Allura didn't quite get the joke but giggled anyways since she didn't really feel like asking about it yet, "And Hunk's so quiet now. It's hard to get him this quiet."

"So true." Pidge nodded, "Who would've guessed that a bunch of pretty girls could get them to shut up like this."

"Not Lance though...he's more talkative than ever." Allura said them smiled as she looked down at Pidge, kind of liking spending time with her for once since those two never did. It felt...nice talking to another female.

Pidge grinned a little, "He's always surprising though."

"True." Allura nodded with a smile on her face still.

The two kept chatting for a little bit, eventually letting it drift to their old homes and such while the boys talked to the alien girls. As the two talked, they learned more about each other but didn't find a lot of common interests unless they were making fun of the guys, yet they were still able to keep a conversation going.

Their conversation was rudely interuppted though when Lance squealed in pain before dropping like a rock. The others soon followed, all of them falling to the ground while the females of the planet towered over them.

Then something rustled through the bushes before a woman at least seven feet tall and with as muscles as a wrestler from Earth appeared with a wicked little grin.

Allura blinked, "...Wha?"


	3. Chapter 3

"Nice job girls." The tall woman exclaimed, looking at the eight girls, who were all very smug about their work of knocking the guys out with some sort of taser. The tall woman looked much different than the eight girls. For one, her skin didn't look like marbels, it was just plain green and kind of scaly too. She also had large, pointy ears, bigger than Allura's at least.

Pidge and Allura, however, were still in complete shock of what just happened.

"Uh..." Pidge mumble before she finally snapped back into reality and quickly activating her bayward to fight, hoping that she could take these nine girls, but none of them looked like they were going to fight neither her nor Allura. They both just stared at the two girls, none of the eight talking to them but the ninth one finally stepped up.

"Hello there." The large woman said to them, a kind look on her face as she spoke to the two softly which was the reason Pidge was hesitating on fighting them then, "You two are now freed."

"Excuse me?" Allura asked for Pidge, the younger girl now trying to look for the other's weak points and how she could win this fight, still hesitating a bit but also using the time to examine them all. The eight girls smug faces soon melted as they looked over at the two again, now concern in their faces. Which just confused the two girls more.

"Well, we've taken down these pitiful males." The big one sad, smiling kindly at them to try and reassure them that they were fine, "You're freed. You no longer have to live in their horrible clutches."

"We didn't need to be freed.." Pidge growled then glared at the one girl who had started searching Shiro's pockets for stuff. The girl raised an eyebrow curiously at Pidge but took her hands off Shiro anyways.

"What do you mean?" The big one asked, slightly frowning at what Pidge said.

"Those are our friends." Pidge answered before Allura could, glaring hard at all the girls now.

"And you just attacked them, why would you attack them?" Allura questioned, a silent warning to remind Pidge that they asked questions first and shoot later. Pidge understood and didn't make any move, but she wasn't planning on it yet anyways, she wanted to know just like Allura did.

The big one raised an eyebrow at them curiously and took a step closer to the four paladins on the ground, both Allura and Pidge tensing up when she did. She noticed that as well and it was almost visible to Pidge of the gears in the woman's head turning as she realized what was going on. She didn't look happy when she finally did come to the realization.

"You poor girls." One of the eight smaller girls said, the orange one, before the big one could talk. The big one made no expression as the small one talked, moving closer to Pidge and Allura. Pidge clutched her bayward tighter but Allura kept her formal stance. "You were obviously brain washed by these pitiful males. I feel so sorry for you. Don't worry, you can tell us anything if you need to. We'll never let another male abuse you like that again." the woman said, honestly looking sincere at that. Which made Pidge feel a whole lot more uneasy about this planet.

"What do you mean?" Allura asked, a frown forming on her face about what the woman said and was now starting to recognize this planet.

"Well obviously you were brainwashed into thinking they were your friends." The orange woman said like it was silly of Allura to not believe her or think anything else of why they may have been friends.

"This is Puella..." Allura mumbled and Pidge looked confused at that but Allura brushed it off just for now, deciding to explain to her later.

The orange one seemed curious by that though, "Well yes. Did you not know?"

"Our ship crashed and the scanners aren't working. I was unable to identify this planet until now." Allura stated, really not liking that this, of all planets, was the one that they had to land on, "This is the planet of the Amazons. We didn't mean to land here. I apologize that my friends and I came here without informing you or anything but we didn't know we were coming here either. Now may you please let our friends go and we'll try to be on our way as fast as we can?"

"No." The big one said, scowling a little, "We don't let any males that have touched our soil free. Even if by accident."

"Why would you want them free though?" The green one spoke up, stepping forward as well, "Males are awful!"

The other's nodded in agreement before adding in what they thought as well.

"Horrible!"

"Terrible!"

"Honourless!"

"Stupid!"

"Pathetic!"

"Annoying!"

"Worthless!"

The group smirked then nodded at each other, each agreeing with what the other saying.

Pidge frowned lightly at what they were saying, understanding that they wouldn't just let their friends go without something. Whether it was a fight or not, Pidge wasn't sure if they'd be able to help.

Allura, still wanted to try to persuade them, "They are members of Voltron though, we need them to help defeat Galra. They're defenders of the universe!"

"The universe would have better defenders if they were female. We have many brave warriors on our planet. I'm sure you can find new members here that are much better." The big one countered.

Allura frowned at that, unable to think of something else to say that wouldn't be offensive or wrong.

"Exactly, you don't need these foolish men." The big one said to Allura's silence, "Come with us, we'll find you brave warriors."

She smiled kindly at Allura and Pidge before gesturing at them to walk with her and the other eight girls. Allura hesitated, obviously not wanting to go but she saw no other choice but to step forward to follow them, maybe try and make a plan while learning a bit more about their culture. And if they stayed here any longer the girls might realize they missed Coran, who was still searching for supplies.

"No!" Pidge suddenly yelled, surprising everyone there, even Allura, "We're not just going to give them up! They may be kind of dumb at times, slobs, and just plain weird in general but we're not going to give them up because of that! Heck, I'm a slob and weird too!"

The large one let out a silent sigh before staring straight at Pidge, her face unreadable,"Obviously, you've never been hurt by a male before then."

Pidge glared, "Females can hurt too."

"Not as badly." The large one snapped, "You don't understand! You're just an oblivious youngling. Have you ever wondered why on so many planets, the males seem to always be the dominant? Because they start the fights. They start the fear. Females are created as the peace keepers, but men don't like peace keepers. They force us to fear them by brute force. Eventually, they'll realize their idiocy but not until we have all their heads on spikes."

Pidge glared hard at her, ready to attack still, "You just need to realize that not everyone is like that."

"And you need to realize that you've been living in your own illusion." She stated, returning Pidge's glare before turning on her heel to head into the forest, "Come with me now. I know you wish to fight, but you will lose. However, you wish to save your friends so I will give you a chance to win them...but you must come with me."

Both Allura and Pidge were hesitant to follow the girls, who were dragging their friends, but Pidge was the one who took the first step to follow.


	4. Chapter 4

They were quite obviously in their primitive stages. Well at least that's what you would see at first sight. The females all had little huts for them and friends or family. Some huts were larger than others but they were huts nonetheless. However, there was something a bit different that showed that they weren't unsophisticated or uncultured. They had little gadgets like the ones back on Earth, though they did look like they would be from pioneers. It still..felt different though. The way they built it, it made Pidge feel like they could've accomplished more if they had tried. Pidge also felt like they had tried though, they knew how to do it, but they chose not to. They chose to live without electricity or a substance like that.

It intrigued Pidge a little, wondering why they might want to live that way but she wasn't going to judge them for it. She was, however, going to judge them for seducing her friends then knocking them out.

"It's wonderful isn't it?" The large female said as she looked back at Pidge, the only one of her friends not carrying a guy, noticing that the girl was looking around at the town, "It's so peaceful here yet there's that sense of hard workers that linger in the air. It's truly amazing."

"That it is." Allura nodded in agreement. Pidge didn't like that at all, but she knew that Allura was just trying to get on her good side.

"We have females from all over the galaxy, this is a sanctuary for people who've been hurt." The large one smiled softly before she started to explain the planet's history, "Long ago this planet was like the others, brutal, disgraceful, and honourless. Males dominated all. But obviously, that rein did not last. Soon, the males died off quickly from their own arrogance...the war they had started to try and see who was the best. Neither sides were the best, and they had died. At least that's what most legends would say, but I know more. I know so much more. The males started the wars, obviously, but the wars were not what killed them. Not specifically at least. No, we did."

"We?" Pidge asked.

She paused for a moment as she looked directly at Pidge now, "My name is Extropa and I am an inhabitant of this planet. I was one of the many women that were abused. While the men raged war on each other, killing everything and everyone, we decided to fight back. One female, one strong female warrior had a plan. She rounded up many girls that needed saving and offered to help them, offered to give them a meaning and help save our planet which was brutally dying. We killed the males in their sleep, one at a time. Each wife, each daughter, each victim killed of the men. Some fought back, some won. But in the whole, the females won."

"You killed them all.." Allura mumbled with wide eyes.

"They deserved it." The large one, Extropa, said quickly, still looking at Pidge though and not Allura, "They were ruining our planet, ruining our lives. We had to get rid of them for the greater good and I'm happy that we did. This is our safe home from those awful barbarians."

"But you're not treating them any better." Pidge pointed out with a bit of distain in her voice, "You're no better than the men now if you're attacking innocent men."

"No male is innocent!"Extropa snapped, glaring at Pidge. Her glare lingered there before she closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, calming herself down it seemed, "None..."

"Please, leave her be." One of the marbled girls said, the green one, directing her attention more to Pidge than the large one who seemed to be freaking out now like she was vulnerable, "She's not feeling too great today, stop attacking her."

"She attacked me friends." Pidge snapped with a glare at the green woman, unhappy with this situation and rightfully taking it out on the attackers.

"Technically, we did, not her." The blue one pointed out which received her a smack over the head by the green one at her obliviousness. Pidge changed her glare over to the blue one quickly before bringing it back to the green one, rage filling up in her chest as she ended up glaring at all the strange women now.

Allura sighed lightly before placing a hand on Pidge's back to reassure her that they'll get the boys back. Allura didn't exactly know how yet, but she would find a way no matter what. They need them, the universe needed them. Plus neither of them wanted to replace their friends, ever.

Silence filled the air then, Extropa apparently done her explanation as she continued to walk but didn't until make any motion to talk. Pidge had realized whatever she said must have offended the bigger girl enough to shut up but Pidge honestly couldn't say she felt bad for it..especially since she had taken her friends captive now.

Allura glanced down at Pidge and just stared at her, the Altean's face was emotionless for a stranger but Pidge could see by looking into her eyes that Allura was worried. She was worried, but she wasn't stupid. She was silently pleading to Pidge to just be quiet since the last thing they needed was to be on their bad sides.

Extropa kept walking silenly until she finally led the large group to a building that looked strangely like a wasn't exactly like it, for example it was a light blue colour which was not the same as the one back on Earth. The architecture was also different, but not by a lot, and the difference would be barely noticeable if you glanced at it. Pidge was honestly..surprised at how similiar this planet felt like Earth and it was making her a bit homesick. Not enough for her to want to leave... no she wouldn't leave until she got her family back.

"What is this?" Allura asked with a raised eyebrow, staring up at the building.

Extropa smirked as she gestured towards it, "This is where you will fight for your friends back."


	5. Chapter 5

"Fight?" Pidge immediately questioned, not liking the sound of that. Though it did make sense considering the structure back on Earth was used by ancient Greeks for gladiator fights. Pidge started kicking herself for not realizing that once she saw the coliseum.

"Yes, a fight." Extropa nodded, a small smirk forming on her lips to show that she was very much going to enjoy this fight...giving Allura a sense of fear but whenever she looked at her unconscious friends who needed their held...confidence came back to her.

Extropa paused for a moment before nodding to the eight girls, who nodded back then started to drag the boys away.

"Hey!" Pidge yelled at the woman when she saw her friends being taken away, not wanting them out of her sight on this strange planet that hated males. She was scared of what they might do to them if there was no there to help there. No one there who would even want to protect them.

Extropa harshly grabbed onto Pidge's shoulder since it was obvious the girl was about to run after them and Extropa didn't want that, "They're being taken to their cells."

"No they're not." Pidge snapped back at Extropa and tried to brush the woman's hand off her shoulder but it was quite clear that Extropa was stronger and did not want to let go. Pidge glared back at Extropa again then looked at Allura, the Altean's expression was concerned and weary but she still made no move to help. Though Pidge hated it, she did believe that it would be better for the two to let it happen.

Extropa simply smirked at Pidge's denial before gesturing her back to the coliseum, "They'll be treated fine. You should really be more worried for yourself now. Come now, I'll give you the tour of your possible death destination."

And she just started to drag Pidge towards the coliseum, as if she didn't have a care in the world anymore...

* * *

The coliseum was somehow literally larger on the inside than it was on the outside. How that was even possible? Pidge was unsure, but she wouldn't have put it past anything they've seen so far. It was more just surprising than unbelievable. Strange still though..

Honestly though, this place was more impressive than the one they had back on Earth. It could've just been the different architecture that made it seem more impressive but..Pidge still got this odd feeling from the coliseum. She felt like it was much much older than how it appeared to be on the outside. The outside had made it seem new, only around a decade old. Even the inside told that story. But Pidge still got the feeling that it was older and..she also got a feeling of death when she walked inside it.

It alarmed her instantly, and when she turned to look at Allura, the Altean would not look back at her. Pidge was unsure if Allura had the same feeling as well because of that. Pidge could only hope she was wrong though.

"So to win your friends back, you'll have to fight as I said." Extropa stated as she kept walking through the halls of the coliseum, pointing out any little historical fact that she noticed but Pidge didn't really care. Whether Allura did or not, was unsure. She kept a well poker face plastered onto her face.

"Who do we fight?" Allura asked, her voice emotionless just like her face.

"It changes." Extropa said with a shrug, "And it's not only a physical fight."

"What?" Pidge questioned with a frown, slightly worried about what she meant with that.

"You'll have to face multiple challenges of mental strength, willpower, emotional, and intelligence. Though there is a physical fight as well." The woman explained,looking pretty smug about this whole thing. Obviously, that did not help put any confidence in neither Pidge nor Allura.

"Why?" Allura asked, her voice formal as she turned her head slightly to see Extropa more clearly.

"What do you mean?"

"Why must we fight?" Allura asked, rephrasing her questioned a little bit, "Why can't we try and cooperate? I'm an Altean with much more advanced technology, I'm sure there is something that I can offer you to have my friends back."

Extropa's eyebrow twitched for a moment before it faded away, looking a bit more formal as if he was trying to imitate Allura, "We don't need technology like a man's world does."

"Excuse me?" Allura raised an eyebrow at that.

Extropa snorted smugly, "We're not as dependent on it as you may be. It's a waste of time and brings out the worst of people and it destroys the planet. We prefer not to have it."

"What about currency? Do you have that?" The white haired girl asked Extropa, honestly curious about how the planet worked. She hadn't done a lot of research about this planet before since it was so far out, she never thought she'd come here. And her male tutors were never fond of the planet so they never brought it up except for those times when they'd insult it by calling it a savage planet.

True, some of it did seem savage (a.k.a. the parts where they killed the men and kidnap male foreigners.) but another part of it seemed peaceful. Walking through the village made Allura feel like the girls who lived here had a small sense of security, she felt like they'd look after each other. But of course, despite the ones who would look out for each other, there were ones who would kill in cold blood. No matter the gender.

"Sort of." Extropa explained as she continued to walk down the large hallway, both the girls followed her, "We do more trades then deal with jinkens like they used to in the olden days. We trade services, animals, products, anything really. Sometimes we don't even trade, some people just do it for free. I don't believe in that part though. People who do things with no gain lose."

"You've taken our friends and you're not going to get anything out of it." Pidge grumbled at her.

"Not true." Extropa immediately argued her, "They'll become slaves."

Pidge frowned at that part, especially since all of them wouldn't go so willing and would probably end up getting hurt because of it. Or Lance would do one of his stupid joke and get extra hurt.

"Why would you need them as slaves?" Allura questioned, but it sounded like there was a hint of taunting in her voice, "If you're so capable without them?"

Extropa stared her right in the eyes then, "Dangerous work that we'd rather not do and..breeding."

"..Lance would like that." Pidge said honestly with a light groan, adding a little humour into this really odd conversation, "But there are no other humans here, right? Humans don't know about the existence of..aliens." she mumbled, not sure if would be offensive to call them aliens when humans were aliens to them.

"There are humans here." Extropa answered, "Not many, but some."

Pidge frowned a little as she tried to remember if there were any missing people other than her family that she heard about. But...she didn't.

"Anyways that enough." Extropa stated with sigh as she turned around towards them, "We've toured enough of this place, now it's time for your first challenge...the willpower challenge."


	6. Chapter 6

Willpower. That seemed easy right? Especially for a girl who had to give up looking for her family so she could do the right thing. Pidge thought she had this one in the bag.

Until she saw her competitors.

They weren't big like Extropa, they weren't strong and they weren't as nasty looking. Honestly, they were up to Pidge's knees, and Pidge was small so that was saying something. There were seven girls, not super pretty in Pidge's eyes but they weren't too bad either. However, considering the size and the amount, the girl couldn't help but be reminded of the seven dwarfs. Which was a little mean...but they're helping Extropa and her little clique turn her friends into slaves so Pidge didn't care that much about their feelings.

Judging by the seven's faces though, Pidge could tell that the feeling was mutual.

None of them had seemed threatening to Pidge at first...until she actually started to look at them. They were all covered in scars, hundreds of scars. Yet this was supposed to be a friendly planet towards others. Maybe it was part of their pasts. Or maybe it was less friendly than it seemed.

However, Pidge could still tell that they endured so much more than her already in life. Pidge had to stay strong for her friends though. No matter what, Pidge had to succeed and win.

"Come right through here." A different woman said, gesturing Allura and Pidge into the main place of the coliseum, where the gladiators would normally fight. The seven dwarfs quickly followed behind them as well, still looking as smug as before.

As the two walked into the area, they noticed a girl larger than Extropa in the middle, looking around at the huge audience. Pidge was honestly surprised at the massive amount of people that came here to watch them. Pidge and Allura were given little time to mentally prepare themselves for this challenge and it's not like this was planned for a long time either. How did they get some many people to show up with so little time to tell them?

It boggled her mind.

Allura, however, didn't seem as surprised. Pidge sighed a little at that, deciding that it was a weird thing with some planets probably.

"LADIES AND MORE LADIES!" The woman in the middle yelled, her voice louder than what Pidge's voice would've been with a microphone. Pidge winced lightly at the loudness of the voice but quickly let it go as she started listening more when the woman started to explain.

"THIS WILL BE A TEST OF WILLPOWER!" The woman yelled to the audience, turning around in circles as if she was trying to get a look at all their faces. She soon stopped though before taking a deep breath, letting the crowd cheer hysterically while she did.

Why the crowd thought this was so amusing, Pidge may never know.

Well, Pidge at least hoped to never know...

"What sort of test?" Allura asked, looking over at the woman who was talking, but the woman ignored Allura completely as she looked around at the audience again, "THE GAME STARTS OUT WITH A CRYING BABY! THE RULES ARE THAT THE FIRST PERSON TO GO HELP THE BABY LOSES!"

The audience cheered again, but Pidge looked more confused than before. So, they just had to not help a crying baby? That was it? No 'Sit in fire for an hour' or anything? Just...don't help it?

That seemed stupid to her.

Pidge looked over at Allura to see silently laugh about how easy this was gonna be but frowned when she saw the expression on Allura's face. She looked absolutely horrified and didn't look confident in the slightest. Obviously, those two were not thinking the same thing about this game.

Pidge's head turned over to the trolls instead, deciding to see if her competition was like Allura as well. Actually, it was more like she was hoping the competition looked as horrified as Allura if not more. However, Pidge did not get what she was hoping for. The seven women looked smug at the challenge, even more smug than Pidge had felt. But now that smugness was starting to fade away, just like the confidence of being able to bring the boys back.

No, she couldn't think like that.

She had to keep thinking she can do this, you can never do something if you don't believe in yourself. She knew that. So Pidge took a deep breath then looked over at Allura, "We can do this." She said softly.

Allura glanced over at Pidge cautiously, obviously not believing it but she nodded anyways.

"AND THE LAST PERSON TO HELP THE BABY WINS..." The woman paused as the scraping sound of metallic made it's way into the middle of the yard, two large women pulled a cage with...Lance in it. And considering he was only wearing a very glittery piece of underwear, the scene probably would have made Pidge and Allura laugh. Heck, it should've made Pidge and Allura laugh, but the circumstances were still a bit..too extreme for them to laugh just yet.

"A HUMAN MALE!" the woman yelled out and pointed to Lance, who received cheers and a few wolf whistles. Okay this time, Pidge did giggle a little bit. She couldn't help herself as she watched Lance blush and put his hands on his chest as if to cover his breasts. Unless someone was already dead, that scene probably would've made Pidge giggle no matter what. Allura didn't look as amused though, keeping a serious face on after she pushed away her expression of concern.

"Stop looking at me!" Lance said in a whiny voice, glaring at the audience as the red on his cheeks darkened even more. The audience showed no sympathy as most of the women started to laugh at the 'pathetic male'. Lance obviously didn't take delight at that and he just stuck out his tongue at them, which only made them laugh harder. Because even Pidge had to admit, he did look pathetic doing that.

"Leave me alone!" Lance yelled at them with a huff when they just kept laughing then he turned away and sat in the corner.

The woman waited for the audience to quiet down their laughter before she turned to the girls competing again, "YOU KNOW THE RULES! GET INTO YOUR PLACES NOW!" she yelled at them.

Pidge and Allura looked confused at first but the other seven girls started to walk away.

The large woman looked at them for a while, expecting them to move but they didn't. After realizing what the problem was, the woman let out a large, impatient groan before walking to the edge of the coliseum, the opposite end the seven girls walked to. She pointed at two platforms that laid there side by side to each other. Allura and Pidge exchanged short, concerned, looks to each other before finally walked over to them. Pidge stood on the right side and Allura stood on the left side.

"AND GO!" The woman yelled when Pidge and Allura got on the platforms. The girl waited patiently for a baby to appear but none did, instead, the world changed


	7. Chapter 7

Pidge wasn't with Allura anymore. No one was with Allura anymore. Even Allura wasn't sure if she was really with herself. She was no longer in the middle of the coliseum with a large crowd watching them, instead she was back at a place similar to home. It wasn't exactly her home though, it just had that Altean feel. No, it was that Altean feel.

The white and blue decorations, the technology, even the style of the furniture. It was all Altean. The tanned woman suddenly started to feel homesick as she looked around the large room. She didn't quite recognize the room, but she got the feeling that it was still in the castle.

The woman frowned a little as she looked around for any doors, wanting to explore the place a bit to see if she really was back at her castle, but couldn't find any. She started to feel trapped, yet at the same time she felt like she belonged here and that there was nothing to fear. Like she could leave any time she wanted, even if there was no exit that was visible to her eyes.

Letting out a deep sigh, Allura started to remember what had happened before this. Voltron. She remembered Voltron being reformed with...humans? Yes. Humans. There was a planet too, they crashed at a planet. But the last thing she could remember was staring at the mud in the ground, which didn't explain to her what she was doing here at all. However, there was a voice in her head telling her not to help the baby. Let the baby be. Don't help it.

Allura didn't know what that meant until she finally heard its cries.

Slowly and cautiously, the girl looked around the room to find out who was screaming and crying, but she was still alone. Except now she was starting to realize what this room actually looked like, a nursery. The room was a large nursery, and over at the end of it was a large carriage, fit for a princess. Allura could now tell where the screams were actually coming from.

Frowning, she walked over to the carriage and looked inside of it, seeing a small, Altean baby that looked a bit like her. It had the tanned skin and blue eyes along with the white hair, but it didn't look exactly like her. The nose was a bit different than hers along with the head shape. The baby was most definitely not her, but it did seem almost like it was trying to replicate what her...child would look like.

Allura widened her eyes at that realization.

The baby's cries rang through her ears as she looked down at the child. The little Altea was reaching his arms out to Allura, wanting a mother's love. Needing the embrace to keep is safe from the cold darkness of the endless night.

Allura's heart melted as she looked at the baby. She couldn't help but wonder that if this really was her baby, who the father was? The first name that came to mind was Shiro, but Allura instantly blushed and pushed the thought away though she wasn't able to deny the fact that she wouldn't have minded if he truly was the father.

Sighing a little, Allura glanced down at the baby again. She held out her hands as she started to lean into the carriage, wanting to hold the child, to love it, to nurture it, and to raise it. She suddenly stopped though when the voice in her mind got louder.

"DON'T HELP IT!"

The voice yelled at Allura.

She jumped back a little bit at the loud noise and looked around to see if anyone was actually there and she wasn't going crazy...but no one was. Her mind was telling her not to touch the child, and truthfully she didn't want to. This whole thing was freaky enough and now there was a child -HER child- in front of her screaming its head off. Yet there was motherly instinct inside of her telling her to help the child. Don't abandon it. Don't leave it be. Don't let it rot alone in the darkness. Help it.

"Don't help it."

"Help it."

"Don't."

"Do it."

Allura scrunched up her face at the argument in her head, a pounding headache being the result of it.

"Quiet please." Allura said out loud as she took a step back, holding onto her head as if that was supposed to help her headache, but it was just Altean instinct to hold your wound. To nurture your wound.

Just like you would a baby.

"Don't fall for it. You're stronger than this, Allura."

Her father's voice spoke this time in her head.

The white haired lady widened her eyes at the voice and looked around the room again, but her father wasn't there. Frowning, she closed her eyes and started to imagine her father, expecting him to talk some more if she did. It didn't work though, and his voice didn't appear in her head again even when she tried to remember his voice as well. It was silent after that.

There was no more battle after her father spoke, no more yes and no. Allura realized what that meant, the pressure was gone but she still would have to choose. This was her choice and no one could try to pressure her into a different decision, even if they were voices in her own head.

The baby kept crying as Allura looked down at it, its tiny little hands reaching out for the girl still. Taking a big gulp, Allura closed her eyes then turned her back on the infant. Something was definitely wrong here, and this baby was the key part. She wouldn't help it.

She knew that if she did, something bad would happen.

So Allura kept her back turned from the baby, even as it cried, she kept her back turned. She could not help the baby, no matter what her motherly instinct pushed at. Let it cry...Let it cry...

Then, she just completely passed out.


	8. Chapter 8

As the real world reemerged and the shock from the illusionary world faded away so Pidge got her memories back, she couldn't begin to describe how disappointed she was in herself. It was awful. She went and held the baby, she rocked it back and forth, she even kissed its forehead. She had felt so smug about it and so sure that she would win, but she didn't. She failed miserably and she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if because of that stupid fail...Lance got sent to one of the seven dwarfs.

She had been absolutely pathetic..

"WELCOME BACK COMPETITORS!" The loud lady yelled when the group of people emerged. Pidge sighed and glanced over at Allura for a quick second who just seemed shocked and surprised. Pidge quickly closed her eyes after that, not even wanting to see the smug faces of the seven dwarfs since she knew what they would be like. They most definitely won this. There was no doubt in the ginger's mind that Lance was now going with the seven dwarfs. At least if they're able to get the other Voltron members back they can probably fight to get Lance again. If they're able to that is.

And Pidge wasn't as confident anymore.

"I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU ALL SINCE ONLY ONE OF YOU HAD ENOUGH WILLPOWER TO NOT HELP THE CHILD!" The woman screamed, surprising Pidge a little bit. Only one of the seven actually had the willpower? Only one of them had one? The surprise quickly faded though as defeat came over again and Pidge felt like a loser. She felt...weak. She hadn't felt this weak since the time she lost her father and brother and wasn't able to do anything about it.

"AND THE ONE WINNER IS.." The woman yelled some more, trailing off to let the suspense kick in to the audience. It didn't matter to Pidge with of the dwarfs won, she didn't give a crap. She just knew she lost. They lost.

If would have been silent if not for the whispering between the groups of people in the audience. Soon the woman looked up at the group again and grinned lightly before announcing, "ALLURA OF THE ALTEANS!"

There were a few cheers, but it was mainly silent. If anything, Lance's cheers were the loudest as the booing started.

Pidge opened her eyes then widened them dramatically as she looked over at Allura, completely underestimating the white haired girl and regretting it. She..she had won. She actually won. She won Lance back.

Filling up a little bit with hope, Pidge smiled over at Allura who looked pretty proud at her victory even though her smile seemed a bit sad..her eyes were filled with more joy.

"I won.." Allura mumbled excitedly as one a woman, most likely a guard, came over and freed Lance...whom immediately ran right over to Allura and Pidge to wrap them both in a hug. Mostly for an innocent reason. Mostly.

"You did it! Yay!" Lance cheered as he squished the two together, both of them grumbling a bit but they got over it as the victorious smiles took control of their face.

"I knew you could." Lance grinned some more as he let Allura go but gave Pidge a noogie despite her whines and grumbles. When he let the girl go, she straight out punched him in the gut. He fell obviously, but he was still happy about this. "Now you just have to save Hunk and Shiro!" Lance exclaimed happily.

"And Keith." Allura pointed out.

"Yeah sure, whatever." Lance shrugged.

Pidge sighed a little but smiled again as the seven dwarfs came over to the group, walking a bit slowly. Allura jumped back when she saw them, worried that they were mad, and Pidge took a step back as well, but Lance stayed in front as if he was trying to protect his girls. Pidge had a feeling the seven dwarfs would be able to rip Lance a new one but whatever made him feel better..

"Stay back." Lance said in a warning tone, getting into a pathetic excuse of a defensive position. And the fact that he was in his underwear made it look even more stupid.

One of the dwarfs stepped up, she seemed a little bit taller than the rest and older, most likely the leader. "Relax." The dwarf said to her softly, staring up into Allura's eyes as she held out her wrinkled little hand.

The all just stared at it, not yet moving.

"You played well and you played fair." the small woman said as she looked at Allura, her face not yet smiling but it did look a bit relieved for some reason. It took Allura a few moments to recall what was happening before she grabbed the woman's hand and shook it lightly.

"Thank you." Allura spoke and smiled at her, earning a smile in return from the dwarf as she shook her hand back.

"Good luck on the rest of the games." The woman exclaimed then turned on her heel before she started to walk away from them. The other dwarfs looked between each other for a moment before nodding and the same expression that the leader had on her face soon took form on their faces as well before they started to walk away.

Allura smiled as she watched them leave before turning back to Pidge, "That was..nice."

"Unexpected." Pidge said, saying her own opinion of what happened.

"Weird." Lance added in but Allura shot him a short glare.

"A good weird?" Lance said instead, trying to make do his wrong but Allura quickly stopped caring.

Pidge sighed at the two but smiled, already feeling more hopeful about this situation since she had two friends with her now. If they saved Lance, they could save the others two. They would just have to be able to work as a team.

Glancing over at Allura's face, Pidge could tell that the white haired girl had the same thoughts as her.

"So now what?" Lance asked as he looked around the stadium, seeing that the audience was now quiet and the competitors were away.

"Probably the next challenge..." Pidge mumbled with a frown, a bit disappointed that they didn't get some time to...be more prepared. To make up a game plan. Or maybe even just give it a moment to sink in more.

Allura nodded with Pidge in agreement, looking professional and determined again. In Pidge's mind, that girl always was good at showing confidence. Pidge hoped she was as good as her but she honestly didn't really know.

Lance looked over at the two and frowned as he thought out loud, "I wonder if I can help.."

"Doubtful." Pidge snorted, "Since this seems to be...well a female planet if you haven't noticed." She said sarcastically to Lance who pouted.

"But I'm free." The boy mumbled with a sigh.

"Not really. You belong to us here. You're probably like a slave." Allura said, trying to explain the concept to Lance. The boy just looked horrified at that thought.

"Slave? I'm NO slave!" Lance huffed.

"Well here you are..." Pidge said then just sighed at him.

Lance opened his mouth to argue but was quickly cut off.

"Why are you still here?" The woman that had been shouting before said, approaching them from behind without any of the three even noticing that she'd moven a little bit.

Lance obviously jumped up at the sudden appearance, since he was spooked.

"Dude!" He yelled, hiding behind Pidge, "YOU DON'T JUST SNEAK UP ON SOMEONE LIKE THAT!"

The woman ignored him though as she kept looking at Allura and Pidge, "You're supposed to leave. The next challenge isn't for a few hours."

Relief filled Pidge's heart when she heard that.

"Where will we go?"Allura asked as Pidge let out a deep breath.

"What do you mean?" The woman questioned, "You just go home, or stay nearby, or explore. Nothing specific."

Allura nodded, frowning a bit though.

"So leave." The woman stated then suddenly became more stern, "Now."

Allura turned on her heel and started to walk towards the place they had come in since that was the only way she actually knew to get out. Lance and Pidge had followed behind her, acting hesitant on it though. Pidge didn't have anything to say so she didn't speak at all and Lance could tell by the uncomfortable silence that had appeared, that something was wrong. At least one of the girls sensed something wrong.

He didn't know why, but he trusted them, so he just followed them out of the coliseum.


	9. Chapter 9

Actually roaming around was much weirder than being escorted by the girls. Allura had no where to go, and didn't even have the slightest clue of what some things were. Plus a lot of people glared at Lance. Which he did not like whatsoever.

"They're all so rude." Lance huffed lightly, crossing his arms as he did. One of the girl's overheard him though apparently and he was hit in the face with a squishy type of purple crop. He huffed even harder as he used the palm of his hand to wipe the goo of the crop off his face. He flicked it off his palm lightly before sending a glare over in the direction that the crop came from, but the few women that were there just glared at him harder.

He just stuck out his tongue at them though, like he was being smart or something.

He was not.

Not in the slightest.

"Knock it off, Lance." Pidge said, giving him a slight glare so he ended up sticking his tongue out at her as well. She snorted at him and Lance gained a smug smile from it, as if he thought he had won or something. Pidge knew he hadn't though. Pidge knew that he knew he hadn't either. He wasn't that stupid...or so she thought he wasn't that stupid. No, hoped. She hoped he wasn't that stupid. Yes, hope was definitely a better word.

"I don't see why I should." Lance grumbled lightly as the looked at the ground then kicked a small pebble, watching as it flicked off the ground to a few feet in front of him then kept rolling for a bit.

"They have a distrust and hatred for men." Allura explained before Pidge could, "So I don't think it would be very wise for you to..taunt them."

"I wasn't taunting them." Lance immediately argued but neither of the girls cared anymore. He was just arguing like he normally did.

"It's strange though." Allura mumbled as she glanced around, not paying attention to Lance's whining, "That a whole society was built like this. I understand the appeal to some women of a manless world, but for one to actually exist? It worries me that there are people who are capable of doing this. How can they be any better than the Galra if they slaughtered so many men?"

"It seemed like they had a reason.." Pidge said quietly, slightly seeing the sanity in this world but not enough for her to fully understand. There was too much murder in the history for her to understand it or agree to it, "But that doesn't make it right."

"It wouldn't in our eyes." Allura nodded in agreement before sighing, "I wish we could help them see it too. So they wouldn't have to live in hatred anymore.."

"Let them. It's their own fault." Pidge murmured as she walked still, no one knowing where they were going exactly.

"We're here to help people Pidge. To fix what has been broken." The white haired female said, staring over at Pidge, "Whether the Galra committed the crime or not, we need to help them. We are Voltron. We are the de-"

Pidge quickly cut her off, "Defenders of the universe, I know I know. It's just...bothers me I guess." she sighed and looked at the ground. She could see the reason the hatred came...but it was still away from her. She still couldn't grasp it. Which was probably a good thing.

"I know." Allura sighed and placed her hand on Pidge's back in a comforting way.

Pidge froze for a second there before she continued to walk, not fighting the hand on her back. It was...comforting. Like a sister's touch. Pidge had never had a sister before. This was strange. But a good strange.

"So where the heck are we going?" Lance asked, looking over directly at the two, finally getting impatient enough to ask. Pidge and Allura looked over at each other with a helpless look before looking back at Lance then saying nothing.

"What?" Lance questioned, "Was that some sort of secret girl talk? Is it confidential? AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO KNOW?"

Allura sighed but Pidge nodded, "Exactly that."

"What?" Lance repeated and glared at the girl.

"You heard me. It's exactly that. You're not good enough to know." She teased him, smiling slightly but she used to hand to cover her mouth from his view.

Allura rolled her eyes as Lance huffed but ended up giggling a little too.

"So cruel." He grumbled as he continued walking.

The two didn't say anything else and just strolled along the path in the village for a while before running into large trees. Pidge peaked into the large area of trees a bit, curious to see if the village led on in there, but she didn't see anything.

"Should we go on?" Pidge asked them both, staring at the seemingly endless ocean of trees before them.

Lance shrugged, not having an opinion on the matter but Allura was frowning, "I'm not sure."

"Why not?" Lance questioned curiously.

"We don't know what's out there, we only have Pidge's weapon, and we could get lost." Allura explained herself to them, still frowning, "Yet...I'm curious about what else is in this world. We've only been at this town and through the small part of forest that we took getting here."

"Then we should check it out." Lance decided and started to stroll in.

"Wait." Allura sighed, looking at the boy but he just continued to walk into the foreign forest. Her sigh increased as she placed her hand on her head to shake it lightly, kind of wishing that they were able to free Shiro first since he was more logical than Lance. And kinder. And better on the eyes...

"Allura?" A voice said, snapping the girl out of her thoughts and making her look up to see Pidge heading into the forest as well, "You coming?"

"So we're really going in?" Allura questioned but started to walk into the forest anyways since no one verbally answered the question. The fact that they all kept walking, however, did.

A comfortable silence fell among the group as they walked in a line, their heads all turning curiously at each new sighting. The wonder of something new filling their eyes. They saw animals of different breeds, some they may never have even dreamed could've existed. One of them that caught Lance's eye the most was some sort of weird purple bird with the head of a mouse, tail of a t-rex, and some claws that he didn't know how to describe.

They had been to many planets, they have seen many strange creatures, but that one...was Lance's new favourite. However, that bird did not like him chasing it around the forest screaming "BE MY PET" for some odd reason.

"Lance, shut up already." Pidge groaned as she pushed aside a branch from a tree so it wouldn't smack her in the face. She was honestly tired of Lance whining and calling out for the bird that he didn't even know the name of so he called it 'Dando'. She didn't even know where in the world that name had come from. Random, she supposed.

"Noo! I want it back!" Lance whined then groaned since the branch Pidge had moved ended up smacking him in the face instead. Allura giggled a little at it, but he was definitely not amused.

"You did that on purpose!" He accused at Pidge, "You bully!"

Pidge sighed at him, a long, deep sigh, "Just shut up already..."

"I can't if you're trying to kill me!"

"I'm not trying to kill you!"

"Yes you are!"

"I'm NOT!"

"Then why did you hit me in the face with that branch?"

"You should've moved it, I didn't hit you! Either way it wouldn't have killed you."

"It could've." Lance stated with a huff as he crossed his arms, glaring down at the girl. Pidge groaned loudly at him as if to tell him that she stopped caring. He didn't seem to catch on.

"You're so cruel..." He grumbled then looked away from Pidge, now with a pout instead.

Pidge groaned again, "Whatever."

Lance gasped at that, acting offended, "How could you?"

She sighed then just hung her head, "Fine, I'm sorry." she said, which was completely untrue but she was getting tired of this stupid fight they were having. Even if it wasn't real. Well it at least wasn't real in her head and he doubted that it was real in Lance's.

"Thank you." Lance nodded lightly, "And you're forgiven."

"Oh joy." Pidge mumbled sarcastically but he didn't seem to notice so it didn't matter.

The comfortable silence clouded over them as their little fight stopped, the friends quite content with the fact that they didn't need to talk to keep the awkwardness away. But the talking was at least a distraction from what was going on. They were Voltron though. They could do this. They were just nervous. Shiro, Keith, and Hunk would be save. Lance believed in them, and so the girls believed in themselves too. Which helped make their silence more comfortable.

A scream soon cut it off though.


	10. Chapter 10

The scream got the trio running towards it, instincts kicking in to protect whoever was in trouble. Needing to help others just came naturally to them now. Neither of them fought it, and why would they? It was just who they were. Their lions chose them for a reason and this was probably it.

The want to help.

The branches of the trees swiped at Pidge's shins, almost making her fall but Lance quickly grabbed her shoulder and pulled her upright. She nodded silently at him as she ran, a silent thank you for helping her. She knew Lance got it, even if she didn't have to see his face. Their friendship was odd like that, good but odd.

They ran for what felt like forever before they finally made it to where they heard the scream...and what they saw was horrific yet...intriguing at the same time. There was giant monkey, or monkey like creature, holding up a young (possibly young. She seemed young but no one there could tell for sure) woman by her feet. The monkey was had green fur and three arms, but other than that it really did just look like a normal monkey from Earth. The woman that was being held looked like one of the marble women they had first met.

She wasn't as 'beautiful' as them though. She was dirty, cut, wasn't the 'perfect' figure in the Earth world like they were. She was a bit larger but not too much, she was really muscular as well with her hair much shorter and more flat.

Pidge got curious about that then. Those eight girls were identical, but this girl wasn't yet she was obviously apart of their race. Pidge just kind of assumed they were all like that. Wasn't exactly right of her, but she still wasn't exactly used to all these new alien species she was meeting.

She was still still trying to figure out the Alteans.

"Come on! Let's help her!" Lance exclaimed when he saw the girl and went to grab his bayward but found that it wasn't there since the inhabitants of this planet had stripped him of his possessions. "Dang it.." He said lightly under his chest then looked around for anything he could use as a weapon. He noticed a fairly large stick laying on the ground so he walked over to it as Pidge got out her bayward since she still had it.

He shrugged lightly at the size, deciding it was good enough for now, then reached down to pick it up. Immediate regret flooded through him as he touched it. The burning sensation ran through his bones, just the slightest touch of the branch felt like acid on his flesh. He jumped back quickly and screamed a little as he grabbed onto his wrist to look at his now red hand. His red, burnt hand.

Pidge and Allura both glanced worriedly at him, but he gave them a really pathetic smile.

The brown haired girl sighed at him while Allura just shook her head. They were both a bit annoyed, worried, and just accepting of the fact that Lance had done that. Pidge supposed she understood a bit, since he did need a weapon to help fight. Especially since he would normally use a gun instead of another type of weapon so he was more used to range attacks than up close. He didn't get the fighting skills of a swordsman, only a gunner. He had agility, but he didn't know how to use it in a way to fight like this.

A weapon would help him.

But it was still...not exactly the smartest idea to touch alien nature like that. At least it was for a good cause.

"Stay back. We can handle it." Pidge assured Lance, who nodded quickly then sat on the ground far away from the stick. He was perfectly fine with letting the two handle this problem while he let his hand heal. They didn't blame him at all.

Allura looked around a bit for her own weapon, trying to find out what they deemed safe to touch. The branches and most likely the bark as well, were not safe as Lance had shown them.

Frowning, the girl took a step back and started to play with a gadget she had kept hidden in his dress, trying to see if she was able to use it as a weapon of some sort.

While Allura did that, Pidge had already activated her bayward and went towards the large beast, not waiting for Allura since there was no need to. The beast swung it's arm at Pidge, but she had stepped back just in time to not get hit from it. She still landed on her butt though. She placed her hand on the ground then quickly pushed herself into a standing position, right at the time that the beast swung his arm again. He was slow true but he was fast enough to make her stumble.

A scowl formed on Pidge's face as she sidestepped to the right before she started running, circling the large beast. The beast turned around, his hand following behind Pidge, trying to catch up to her. Luckily, she was just a bit faster than him. His head turned all around in the directions she was in, the beast looking like he was getting dizzy but he wasn't dizzy enough to fall over yet. If Pidge kept this up for a bit then she might be able to make him dizzy, but the problem was she was getting quite dizzy as well.

At least she did notice something though, considering he kept following her around, he didn't seem to be the brightest. Which would help out a lot since she was quite smart. Which wasn't bragging, it was just a fact. Like what smart people used, and she was smart.

She smirked slightly at the realization then moved back a bit, glancing back at Allura while doing so. The white haired girl couldn't seem to find a weapon so she went over to Lance instead to make sure he was okay. By the look on his face, he wasn't.

Pidge sighed, happy that Allura was helping Lance since he needed it, but she was also hoping for a bit of help. Oh well, Pidge was the paladin of the green lion. She could surely handle this monkey right?

Right?

She pulled back a little bit from him after encircling him a few times, trying to regain herself so she wouldn't fall over. Luckily, the monkey was dizzy too so it gave her time as well to calm her body and brain down. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, trying to stop the world from spinning around her. Once she was sure that she wasn't going to puke, she stood up straight again and looked over at the beast who still seemed to be recovering.

Pidge smirked as she got closer and activated her bayward, jumping onto his arm and running up it. The beast grumbled lightly and tried to shake his arm around to get her off but he was still dizzy so it wasn't effective. Which was good for Pidge.

The girl jumped up to his shoulder and sliced at it with her bayward, which didn't give him a deep cut but it did give him a cut. He howled at her and shook his arm harder, making her topple a bit but she didn't fall off yet. She jumped over to the other arm that held the girl and slashed at it too, giving him more cuts. Which he was very unappreciative of. He didn't let go of the girl though so Pidge frowned and slashed at him again, trying to get him to let her go. His grip was tight and the girl was hitting his hand to try and get him to let go but it wasn't working.

Not that Pidge thought it would, but this alien may have had super strength. Apparently not though.

He swung his arm at her again as Pidge slashed at him, the girl oblivious to it since she was trying to find a way to get the girl out. The palm hit Pidge, his palm about her full size, and smacked her off the arm. She widened her eyes as she fell, then panic rose in her gut when she saw where she was aimed at. A pile of branches. A pile of branches that looked just like the ones Lance had touched..

She heard a scream, one calling her name, but it only passed by as she landed in the large pile of branches. Her eyes were closed and she was biting her lip, awaiting for the pain to come. She wasn't even sure if she'd be able to live through this.

But...no pain came. Well nothing except for a few scratches she got from the branches themselves. There was nothing special though, no burning pain, nothing to make her scream. A breath of relief escaped her lips when she realized what had happened, well she didn't know exactly what had happened. She was just happy that she wasn't dead. Or in a whole lot of pain.

She wasn't able to be grateful for that long though, since the beast wouldn't let her. No, instead he tried to slam his fisted hand down on her while she was still in the pile of branches. Reflexes kicked in though and she rolled out of the branches, just in time to avoid the punch. A second flashed through her eyes as she rolled over again, since his fist smashed into the ground where she just was.

Quickly, she activated her bayward again and rolled away to avoid his third punch. This time though, she swung her bayward towards his hand, leaving a slice in his knuckles. He howled at her then glared down, letting go of the other girl so he could attack Pidge with both hands. The girl fell to the ground, but she didn't look harmed so Pidge let it be as she watched her scramble away.

Pushing herself to her feet again, Pidge stared the beast straight in the eye, knowing exactly what she was doing. She was daring him, challenging him. Making sure he knew that she was his predator. She was being cocky, she knew that too. Pidge wanted him to think think she was cocky, it would make him mad. Getting an enemy mad wasn't always the smartest plan to use, but when it came to animals or beasts like this, it made them a bit more...unstable. Uncoordinated.

True, this was still an alien, but she was taking a chance here.

A chance that didn't end well...since this thing seemed to grow.

And grow..

And grow...


	11. Chapter 11

The beast was weird. Very weird.

So weird, that it reminded Pidge of a Superhero/villain back on Earth. It was this scientist that was hit with gamma radiation so every time he got mad, he turned into a great big monster. And by the way this already large beast was growing, she could very easily make that comparison. She was just hoping that it wasn't because of the fact that she got him mad. Mainly because she didn't want to have to blame herself for this problem, though it's not like she had anyone else to blame.

But not being the reason for something always felt better than being the reason.

The big beast didn't grow green though, Pidge wasn't sure whether that was good or bad. Maybe good, since it didn't make him look intimidating and Pidge didn't need to be anymore scared since if she was, she might show it. That was the last thing she ever wanted to do, especially in front of an enemy. Showing fear in front of enemy was almost immediate doom.

Activating her bayward again, Pidge took a step back and looked up at him. He was glowering down at her, but he hadn't made a move yet. He was staring her in the eyes though, doing exactly what she had done to him.

She had much regret in it now.

His arm swung towards her again, but a lot faster than it had before. Pidge started to run back, hoping that going into the trees would make it harder for him to attack her since these big things would be in the way. Luckily, it was working for the most part. He had only started to approach the trees, but he didn't stick his hand in to grab Pidge where she was standing. He didn't even try to attack her while she was in there. Pidge didn't know why exactly, but she was grateful for it.

Though she was concerned about the fact that he was just staring down at her, barely even blinking. He didn't move, he didn't look down at the girl who had scrambled away but stayed close enough to watch. Why she wanted to watch, Pidge wasn't exactly sure about that but she figured that it could just be because she was a stranger. The beast didn't pay any attention to the girl again, which means Pidge had made him really really angry.

 _Great..._ she thought sarcastically to herself as the beast sat down.

Pidge gave him an odd look, but he just stared at her. Angry, obviously, but he wasn't going in the forest for some reason still. It was starting to scare her. Was there something worse in the forest? Maybe he would end up touching too many branches and burn like Lance did? But Pidge didn't burn..

The girl frowned as she continued to look at him, now having a staring contest as she tried to figure out what to do. First she would need to have an advantage. She wasn't quite sure how to get that though.

But at least she knew what she needed.

True..that wasn't exactly helpful but she needed some sort of positive thought to keep her going.

"Pidge!" Allura yelled, standing up after helping Lance out so that the pain was dulled. She looked over at Pidge and just stared into her eyes, the two attempting to have a silent conversation. It worked out for the most part and Pidge nodded at her, getting her bayward ready.

Allura took a deep breath, knowing what the majority of the plan was. She was ready, ready enough at least. She didn't get out in the field too much so this was a little new to her, but she needed to help Pidge.

"Hey!" Allura yelled at the beast to get his attention, but it didn't even glance at her. It was still focused on Pidge. Blinking slightly, Allura stared at it in confusion at the fact that it completely ignored her. He really was stupid, she supposed.

Or maybe hard of hearing?

She kind of hoped it was both, to be honest, because that would make defeating him a lot easier but she knew she wasn't lucky for him to have both of those problems.

Slowly, Allura started to make her towards his arm that rested on the grass, since he was still sitting. He didn't look back at her still, despite her constant movement. Not wishing to push her luck, she kept walking until she got to it. She glanced up a little to see if he had noticed her yet, but some how he still hadn't.

Using that to her advantage, Allura jumped onto his arm and grasped onto his fur, using it to try and climb up him. He yowled in pain then looked down at Allura, an unpleased expression on his face when he saw someone there. Allura looked up at him and shrugged sheepishly, noticing his other arm starting to come up. He swung it towards her, like he was swatting a fly off his arm.

Allura squeezed her eyes closed and waited for the impact.

She felt a force hit her then she fell back, landing in some sort of liquid. When she opened her eyes, she saw that the beast indeed hit her off, but it gave Pidge enough time to climb up him and attack. Which she was doing, and it was kind of entertaining to watch. She was slashing at him with her bayward, the thing small but it cut through skin enough. It was a miracle he wasn't able to catch her, but maybe growing bigger also made him slower. Which made Pidge even more like a fly.

"She's great.." Allura heard Lance mumbled in awe from behind her. That made the white haired girl smile a bit. She knew that he thought she was amazing behind, he thought everyone in the group was amazing. She just couldn't recall ever hearing him say it. So when she did, well it sounded kind of sweet.

"Yeah she is." Allura nodded in agreement, speaking loud enough so Lance could hear and be able to tell that Allura also heard what he said before.

Glancing back a bit, she could see that Lance had paled a little before just shrugging it off. His embarrassment faded quickly and Allura thought that was also kind of cool as well. There was a lot more to Lance than what was portrayed. Yet...that was for everyone member of Voltron.

Suddenly, a battle cry was heard throughout the forest that completely snapped Allura out of her thoughts.

Her head snapped back to see where it came from, but she almost couldn't believe the sight she was seeing. The girl that Pidge had saved earlier was now in full battle armour (well Allura suspected it to be battle armour.) and held a spear made of some sort of element that Allura couldn't quite pinpoint to which. It looked like a very foreign element, most likely used on planets far away from Altea.

The element of the spear wasn't the surprising part though, obviously. But it was just something for her to note, maybe she'd look it up when she would go back to the ship.

The beast looked back at the woman and its eyes suddenly widened, forgetting completely about Pidge who had stopped for brief moment to look at what was going on. A confused expression formed her face when she saw it, but she quickly shook it off and continued the attack. Her attack on the beast started to seem less effective though. She wasn't doing anything different than before when it did hurt him, but now he didn't react. His attention was still on the girl, who didn't seem to move either. They were both just staring each other in the eyes.

Not like what Pidge had done before. This didn't seem like an intimidation move. More like they were showing their respect. That they considered each other living creatures, but this was still a fight.

Then out of the blue, the woman suddenly jumped from where she was and actually landed on the beast's shoulder in a single leap, despite the fact that she was behind Allura. In a flash, The girl smacked the beast with the hilt of her spear, somehow with another force that it actually knocked him out.

His body started to fall, Pidge quickly jumping off him when he did. A green glow emitted from his fur as his body started to shrink again, no longer being the giant green Hulk monkey he had been before. There were less trees casualties that time, but there had been about one or two from his hand falling and hitting off the top a bit, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been. However, Pidge noticed that the beast didn't stop shrinking when it hit its original size. Instead, it kept shrinking and shrinking but stopped when it hit the bottom. By that time, he was about as large as two Pidges. So still large, just not as large.

Then the woman looked back at Allura and stormed over to her, no one having any idea why, but Pidge activated her bayward again in case she had to fight off her too.

"Who are you?" The woman growled, her glares like knives against Allura's throat.

"A-Allura.." Allura stated, not sure what was going on exactly but this girl was obviously not a force to be reckon with.

"Your ears...you're Altean are you not? Your race died off years ago." The woman said and pointed her spear at Allura's throat but did not attack. Despite her casual sentence, her words seemed harsh. Like they were trying to pierce Allura for some reason.

"I am. I am the sole survivor." Allura lied, not mentioning Coran since this girl seemed dangerous enough and it was precaution.

"Then you will die now." She said then raised her spear, before throwing it at Allura's throat.


	12. Chapter 12

The world felt like it frozen for a moment. Everything happened in slow motion for Pidge.

Her legs started moving on their own, her mind not even needing to tell them to go. She could hear the leaves cracking beneath her feet, the wings of a bird like figure nearby flapping, and even her own heart beat. She just needed to get over there. She needed to save Allura. Her mind didn't know what was going on or what to do, but her heart did. Even if it knew that she would never be able to make it in time.

However, she wouldn't have needed to.

In the flash of a light, the woman with the spear flew back, the large woman from the beginning, Extropa, standing over top of Allura. Her palm was out, facing where the woman had been, as if she had just pushed her away. The girl had literally flown back though so it was obvious that it wasn't just a measly 'push'. This woman...she was strong. Stronger than she let off.

"Kisna."The woman spat out at the armoured girl, her words were completely foreign to Pidge. In fact, she was't even sure if she'd be able to pronounce it with practice. 'Kisna' was as close as she could get to the pronunciation of the name.

"Extropa." The other girl said back, her voice just as nasty, "Back off."

"No." Extropa said sternly, glaring at the girl but seeming more like an angry mother than an enemy, "These three are guests to the planet. You may behave yourself appropriately to them. Do NOT kill or even maim them."

"Guests? They're monsters! One of them is even a male!" The girl, Kisna, screamed angrily at Extropa. Her spear locked in place by her side, as if she was going to fight at any second.

"He has been won by them rightfully. And these two women have as much right to be here as you do." Extropa replied calmly, not seeming intimidated in the slightest.

"The Altean deserves to die."

"She's a woman that has rights here." The large woman spoke to her, her eyes never once leaving Kisna.

Kisna glowered at Extropa harshly, before she finally let her arms relax a bit. The spear moving into a non offensive position instead of what she had before. No more looking like she was going to fight. Instead, she just sent one last glare at Extropa before turning around and heading back towards the unconcious beast. Slowly, she placed two fingers on his knees as if she was checking for a pulse.

But...on his knees?

"She still alive?" Extropa asked the woman.

Pidge widened her eyes when she heard the 'she' part. All this time Pidge had just labelled the beast as a he. She felt bad for thinking that, but then she got a bit curious. Were the animals all female too? But then they wouldn't really be able to reproduce. Well maybe they could, Pidge didn't exactly know how the biology worked for all of the aliens. Maybe they only needed one gender to have children.

"Of course." Kisna said with a snort, as if she was offended by the question, "I'm not heartless."

"Good." Extropa said plainly before forcing Allura into a standing position. She received a quick glare from the white haired girl but didn't last long as she remembered that Extropa saved her life. "Now let's go." The large woman spoke, looking over at Pidge, "And bring your slave too."

"I'm not her slave!" Lance whined, having been quiet for much too long.

"On this planet you are." Pidge sighed a little bit at him as she started to walk over to Extropa.

Lance groaned and glared at her lightly as he forced himself to stand when Pidge walked by him. He glared back at the girl who tried to kill Allura as well. She just replied with her own glare. So Lance stuck out his tongue at her.

It look like it took a lot of willpower not to throw that spear through his head.

"Follow me and hurry up." Extropa said with a growl as she walked into the woods. The group of three followed her silently, only quickening their pace because they wanted to get away from the crazy woman that wanted to kill Allura. Not because they were listening to her orders.

"My hand hurts..." Lance pouted as he looked down at his swelling hand, pushing past the trees but steering clear from the branches. Extropa didn't care of the branches though, she pushed them away with ease. Using her bare hands. So Lance got a bit envious and grumpy about that.

"Shut up." Extropa snapped, not even bothering to know why.

He huffed at her and held his hand with his other hand, just hoping for the stinging to go away.

"Where are we going?" Pidge asked, cutting off any more whining from Lance.

"Back." Extropa answered plainly.

Pidge sighed at her, not liking the very 'descriptive' answer but she didn't feel like pushing it. Extropa seemed to still be in her cranky mood and now Pidge had actually seen how strong the woman could be. She didn't want to have to feel it for herself.

The group of four walked in silence for a little bit more, Lance's grumbling hear a bit but no one really paid attention to him. The two girls were worried, of course, but there was really nothing they could do for his hand now. When they got back, they would ask around though. Maybe someone would have some sort of ointment to offer him.

As the silence continued a bit, Allura finally spoke, "Thank you.." she said to Extropa.

There was a soft grunt heard from Extropa behind she turned to look over at Allura"Just for your information, I didn't help you because I like you." She spoke bluntly, "I helped you because you're bringing in a big audience for the next challenge and the women find you both entertaining."

"That's rude." Lance scoffed, "How dare you say that to us? We are people! Not entertainment! Not some...comic relief for your show! Who do you think I am?"

"Shut your mouth before I sew it closed for you." Extropa snapped again, turned her head to face him for a split second before turning it back to the front, not deeming him worthy to look at anymore.

Lance huffed again but did shut up. At least for the moment and all.

"Either way thank you. You still saved my life..." Allura mumbled then glanced at her again, "Why did she try to kill me anyways."

The woman stopped in her steps and closed her eyes. She sighed slightly before opening them a bit, "It's a long story...and it's not mine to tell. But I will tell you one thing. Never, ever mention that you are a part of Voltron or your whole team will be slaughtered before that baboon of yours can even say 'Help'." She warned.

Allura frowned at that but nodded.

"Did you just call Pidge a baboon?" Lance asked. Then Pidge punched him, pretty hard, in the arm. A whine escaped his lips as he rubbed his arm right in the place Pidge punched. Lance pouted at her lightly, as if he was hoping to get an apology of some sort. He didn't, obviously. She felt she had every right to punch him and didn't regret it in the slightest.

"Come on you two." Allura sighed at them both as she kept walking, Extropa having gotten quiet now. Which was a little unnerving since she actually did talk quite a bit. And Allura expected her to tell Lance to shut up. Allura must've said something that shook her up a bit..

The silence fell over the group again, not exactly a comfortable silence but it was better than her yelling nonetheless. Lance was the only one that made noise again, but it was normally just for a light whimper or so, never actually speaking.

They quickly pushed away more branches and treading through leaves, making sure Lance never touched any of the branches. Extropa was the only one that wasn't careful, but they all followed her since she knew where to go. Eventually, they finally made it back to the village...but there was an angry crowd waiting for them.


	13. Chapter 13

The sound of the cheers swept through the coliseum and Pidge almost felt bad that she hated hearing people cheer like that. Though to be fair, she had a very good reason for this. The only reason Pidge and Allura were even fighting was because they took their friends hostage. The only way for them to win them back was to be in these stupid and pointless game. So yeah, Pidge believed she had a fair reason to hate the cheering of the annoying crowd.

Lance wasn't with them in the arena, he was taken somewhere by some girls who did not seem happy about having to look at a male. Or touch one, that formed even worse scowls on their faces. But Pidge supposed that was for the best, he probably would've distracted them or be in more danger in this crowd of man hating females. Hopefully he was somewhere more safe. She knew he wouldn't get a weapon either though so she just really wanted him to be in a safe place.

There was someone else in the audience that Pidge noticed though. She didn't know if she attended it last time or not, but she did know that the woman wasn't rooting for them. Mainly because that woman was Kisna and she had a very pissed look on her face. Pidge wouldn't be too surprised if she tried to murder Allura during the game. Not that she wanted it to happen obviously, she hoped Extropa was around to stop her if she did, but it honestly did seem likely.

"WELCOME BACK LADIES!" The loud woman from the first round yelled, having entered the arena. So far, Pidge and Allura were the only other girls in the large place. No other teams to fight them, just those two. She figured they may come a bit later or something. Or maybe those two weren't be there..

The cheering erupted even louder in the crowd. Pidge could hear a bit of English in there, mainly some curses towards men, but a lot of the other words she had heard seemed pretty foreign.

"IT IS NOW TIME FOR THE SECOND PART OF OUR EVENTS!" The large woman yelled, a devilish smirk appearing as she looked at the crowd, "THE TEST...OF MEMORY!"

The crowd roared into its cheers again and Pidge couldn't help but feel a little bit more confident again. She was really good at remembering things, that's why she was basically declared the 'smart' one in the group. Of course everyone was smart as well, but Pidge was just more techy. Allura still knew more about her ship than Pidge though, obviously. But Pidge was learning, faster than a normal person would. Well normal human she supposed.

A small group of women started to enter the arena again, however, they were jumping into the arena from where the crowd were. They landed flat on their feet and didn't wince despite it being about a ten foot drop. Pidge couldn't tell if they were competitors or if they were just intruding. However, the loud woman didn't seem to have a problem with it so she figured they were competitors.

There were less this time, thankfully, only about three. They didn't all look the same like the last group though. One looked a bit more human, but had pointy ears and large hands. Another seemed a bit more like a stereotypical alien, with just black eyes and a more oval face along with three legs and blue skin. However, the third one looked the most different. She was larger than the others, almost bigger than Extropa with gray skin. She looked almost like an animal. Her head went back to a point and her nose was pretty far in her body. She had no hair and only two toes/fingers with long hands. It looked like there were wrinkles on her body. All over her body. Yet they weren't exactly wrinkles either...

The one with three legs walked towards the two and just stared at them, her eyes looking hollow as she stared at the gape in between Pidge and Allura. Not even at either of them, just the gape. "Hello." She spoke quietly, her voice sounding monotone.

Pidge blinked as she looked at her, "...Hello."

"You are our competitors?" The woman asked, her eyes still staring at the gap between them. They looked empty. Completely empty. Like there was no activity behind, no passion, no emotions. Just darkness.

"...I guess." Allura said with an awkward look on her face, probably feeling the same as Pidge was at that moment.

"You do not look like much." The more human woman said, popping up from behind the woman talking to them. Her eyes weren't as a dark and hollow, but they still seemed kind of empty. What wasn't empty was filled with judgement. So Pidge obviously didn't like that.

"We look like more than you do." Pidge grumbled and crossed her arms.

Allura sighed a little, but didn't stop Pidge because she was a little offended as well.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The woman replied with a sassy tone and crossed her own arms, just begging for a fight. Which Pidge was tempted to give her, but luckily she had enough willpower to stop herself. Fighting now wouldn't be the smartest. She needed to concentrate on the challenge.

"Split it up!" The loud woman yelled, glaring over at the group. It wasn't just Allura and Pidge though, she was glaring over at the two that came to talk as well. Which meant she wasn't choosing favourites.

A good thing in Pidge's head, even if she didn't know that woman was in charge of anything...but in case she was.

The humanoid woman, who will be called alien 2, scoffed then turned around. She started to walk back to the most least human, who will be called alien 1, then was followed by the middle, who is alien 3.

"Now we shall begin the contest." The woman declared and raised her arms again.

Three women came out of an opening, each of them hauling two large buckets of water, well one of them had only one bucket since there were only five girls. One of the girls brought the two buckets over to Pidge and Allura, then Pidge got to actually see what was in them. It looked like water, but it smelled a bit weird and had a more blue colour than water actually should. However, nonetheless, it still looked extremely heavy. Pidge doubted that she could bring out two of them without spilling any water.

"For this challenge, you must remember the words I speak." The loud woman stated then walked over to Pidge first, pulling out a thin slice of wood. Pidge raised an eyebrow at the piece of wood but didn't question it much as two girls came from behind her and grabbed both her arms. Panic ran through her veins as she struggled to fight them, but they were much stronger than her and kept her still. One of them kicked the back of Pidge's knees so she fell down onto her knees, her head hovering just above the water.

Then, they dunked her head in.


	14. Chapter 14

"Mirror." A voice rang through Pidge's head before she was dunked in the water again, barely even getting a moment to breath in between. Her glasses were off now, having lost them in the first dunk. She knew they were in the water at least.

She tried desperately to hold her breath as she was in the water, but she ended up gasping by accident, taking in too much alien water.

Then they brought her head up.

"Statue." The voice said, Pidge spitting out water as she came up, only getting a tiny breath of air before her head was dunked in again.

She could hear some yelling from outside, but couldn't quite tell what the words were. One of the voices sound a bit like Allura though. Like she was screaming at people. Pidge just kind of assumed it was out of anger because...well she would be angry too if some people just started dunking Pidge's head in the alien water without any warning whatsoever.

Then, she came up again.

"Can."

And then she was back in the water again.

Pidge's thoughts started to trail off some more as she was put in the water. She started to think nasty thoughts about herself. She started to believe that she wouldn't be able to do this again. That she was going to fail.

They were going to die because of her.

Up.

"Joke."

Down.

No, she couldn't think those thoughts. They would distract her from what was going on. By worrying and panicking, she wouldn't be able to help them. By giving up, she gave up any hope for saving them.

Besides, she had to focus on what was going on now.

She had a slight idea to what was happening anyways. It was part of the memory test. When she was in a panic type of mode, like suffocation, her mind wouldn't be focused on her memories anymore. It was hard to remember or pay close attention to surroundings. Some people even get amnesia from suffocating.

Pidge would have to remember the words. She just hoped she could do it.

Up.

"Game."

Down.

But she wasn't in the water for a very long time. Not like the other times. She was brought out quickly and she wasn't dunked in again.

Her head hovered over the alien water, her hair completely soaked and dripping back into the jar. She blinked a few times to get any of that weird water out of her eyes. She got most of it out without having to use her hands, but her vision was still blurred. She could only tell that there was a jar in front of her. She was completely blind, but it wasn't the best. She could just barely make out figures if they were right in front of her. The rest was blurred.

"Repeat those words in order." The woman said, her voice stern but not mean. Just...saying instructions.

Pidge bit her tongue a bit as she reached her head to pull out the words. She knew she remembered them, she just had to get them out of her head.

"Mirror..." Pidge said quietly, remembering the first one before biting her tongue again. The second word...what was it? She remembered that it started with an s..no wait was it a c?

She frowned a bit before saying the word, "Can."

There was no reply, just like the last time. She wished she had her glasses, that way she could look for a clue in the woman's face if she got it right. Though, as she thought about it, the woman was most likely trained and wouldn't give off any hints. Still, it would be nice to see.

Pidge just hoped she was told at the end if she got it right or not. She was curious.

"Next." The woman ordered when Pidge was silent for too long.

The girl gulped a little bit and pulled out the first word that popped into her head, "Poke."

It kind of sounded right to her, but it didn't sound...exactly right.

"And last?" The woman asked. Pidge frowned a little. Wasn't there five words? Did she miss one?

"Game." Pidge answered, confident about that one since that was close to the time when she figured out what they were doing.

She felt the people holding her let her arms go and Pidge slumped forward a bit, being able to keep herself up. She almost let herself fall but she was able to remember that there was a jar in front of her. She started to breath slowly, letting her racing heart return to its normal speed. Just trying to calm down. She still couldn't see yet but she dug her arm into the alien water and started to search the ground for her glasses using her hand. Her body was already cold so the alien water didn't make much a difference.

Her hand searched around for a bit before feeling something plastic. Pidge smiled softly to herself before wrapping her fingers around the temples of her glasses before pulling up. Not too quickly though, this alien water felt more dense and she didn't want to break her glasses. Where would she get new ones? Well she could probably make some with the right ingredients, but that would be hard if she was blind.

A soft and relieved sigh escaped her lips when she got her glasses fully out of the way. She placed them on her face and blinked a few times to try and get her vision back. It took a few tries, but it slowly started to clear up and Pigde could see what was happening now.

The women were over with alien 2 (the least human) and were now holding her head in the water. Pidge watched curiously, noting that they were only doing one at a time. Probably so the girls wouldn't get messed up by other words.

When they brought the woman's head up, the woman that had spoken to Pidge said a word to alien 2 but Pidge didn't understand it. It was an alien word, she guessed, from an alien language. Pidge supposed that made sense. It was probably the alien's first language. A lot of aliens seemed to know English, Pidge never thought about whether it was their first language or not.

It was kind of interesting to hear another alien's language actually. She had been hearing English for so long, the only words that were really different were the names. Not all of them were even alieny. Just...bad sounding English. Pidge hadn't even realized how disappointed she had been from that until now.

Then a thought popped into the young girl's head. What if Allura's first language wasn't English? But Allura was the one that first spoke to her and the other's in English. Maybe that was just a more common language in their world. Or maybe it's just her first language.

Pidge watched as alien 2 repeated some of the words to the woman in front of her. It was hard for Pidge to be able to tell if they were right or not since she didn't know the actual words but at least one sounded way off than the others. Pidge hoped it wasn't just the one though..

Then the woman moved over to Allura, who didn't look too happy to have her arms grabbed from behind her. The women holding her obviously didn't care as one of them kicked the back of her knees so she'd go down, even though it looked like she was willing to go down to her knees anyways. Pidge scowled when Allura winced from the kick on her knees.

The woman on Allura's right side forced her head into the alien water. It felt like she stayed in the water longer than Pidge and the other girl were in too...but maybe she had just counted wrong? Pidge honestly hoped so, they didn't need to make anymore enemies on this planet.

When they pulled her head back up, the spoke an English word and Pidge could hear Allura repeat it to herself, probably to help her remember. She was a little disappointed that Allura's first language was English. But it was also a good thing, because Pidge might have actually held back on her speech if Allura's language wasn't English. However, this was a nice opportunity to learn how a language from Earth had gotten all the way over to Altea. Or the other way around.

After they had finished, Allura repeated the words she had remembered. She only got one right though. Pidge frowned a bit, hoping that she had gotten more down but she wasn't too sure. Plus there were two others girl.

They had finished up in about twenty minutes tops, each other their languages something different so Pidge couldn't quite tell if they were right, but one of them sounded like they had gotten almost all of them right...which wasn't good for Pidge.

The loud woman stood in the center of the arena again and started to speak, "They all participated well, but there can only be one winner. And that winner is... NAJ-"

"WAIT!" a voice screamed, causing Pidge to snap out of her panic state and look over at one of the woman who had held the others down over the water, dragging alien 1 by the arm over to the loud woman. Alien 1 looked nervous as the loud woman looked at the woman's forearm and scowled at her. She spoke something to the woman holding her and the other nodded before dragging alien 1 off again.

"Since...there seemed to be a major issue with Najna cheating, she has been disqualified." She announced to the crowd and the large range of boos spread over the people, "Instead, the winner is PIDGE!"


	15. Chapter 15

"Man this is comfy." Lance exclaimed as he jumped on one of the two beds provided to the group.

"That's my bed." Pidge said, giving him a look as she went over to her bed and sat on the edge.

Allura sighed at the two as she stood beside Shiro, who was freed since they won the last game. She looked around the room curiously. It had been nightfall when the game had ended, so they sent everyone home and gave Allura and Pidge a hotel room for them to stay the night. Lance and Shiro were to stay with them, but it was obvious that they weren't provided a bed. Especially since there was one piece of paper on each bed stating who they were for.

The room itself was pretty nice to say the least. It was kind of like an earth style cabin type. The walls looked like they were made from logs and there was a soft carpet laid on the ground. No technology was in the room at all, even the light source was just some sort of candle. Not exactly a candle though, it wasn't made from wax. Instead it was made from sap from the trees. Apparently that was more like their wax than what was on Earth.

For Allura, the room looked kind of cute. Especially since as an Altean, she was surrounded by technology almost twenty four seven. To the others, it made them feel homesick. They didn't say it, but Allura could see it in their eyes. The way Shiro looked longingly at the logs. The silence held in Pidge's eyes as she laid on the blankets of her bed after pushing Lance off. It wasn't exactly like a log cabin

"You're so mean." Lance sighed, laying on the floor now. He looked a bit normal, still being his goofy self. But you could see in his eyes that he was thinking about his family.

"Shush." Pidge said and made a 'zip it' gesture with her mouth.

Lance just groaned at her before turning on his stomach, "So who's sleeping where? I assume Pidge and Shiro in the same bed since they're the smallest and the biggest. Only makes sense really. Which means..." The boy trailed off then looked over at Allura with a slight flirtatious smirk plastered on his face, "You and I will have to sleep together."

"Nope." Was Allura and Shiro's immediate response to it. Pidge just smacked him in the head again.

Allura paused then glanced over at Shiro curiously, but he didn't seem to notice her so Allura just looked back at Lance. As if that had never happened. Not like she needed to have anyways. It wasn't a big deal. Shiro was obviously just saying no because it was quite clearly a bad arrangement.

"We could just sleep on the floor and let the girls have their beds." Shiro suggested, but he didn't even look at Lance to see his opinion. It was obvious what his opinion on that was anyways.

"No it's fine. Pidge and I can take one bed." Allura assured him before Pidge could say anything. And before Lance could whine about that suggestion.

"Are you sure?" Shiro asked.

Lance sighed then started to whine before Allura could answer, cutting her off this time, "Noo you're too big! I'll probably be pushed off the bed! I should go with Allura. It's the logical option. Pidge doesn't take up as much room as I do!" He complained, trying to put in some facts that could make sense as to why they should sleep like that. However, everyone knew the real reason.

Little pervert.

"No Lance." Allura sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, not exactly annoyed. Well not yet at least.

"Fine." Lance said with a pout but didn't fight it anymore, giving up more graciously than normal. Most likely because it was quite obvious that he wasn't going to get his way like that. It was three against one, and at least one of them would beat them up. Two probably if they were provoked. However, luckily for him, neither of those two were the ones with a metal arm. Yet at the same time, it was the two that would show him a whole lot less mercy than the one with the robot arm.

And he knew that.

"Good." Pidge nodded with a smug look on her face.

Lance snorted at it, but didn't actually reply.

Then it suddenly got silent, all at once. As if it had suddenly dawned on them that while they were playing around with each other, joking and smiling like normal, two of their friends were still trapped. Who knew what they were doing to them. Lance and Shiro may have a slight idea but they didn't stay the night there. Hunk and Keith were though. Alone, but at least they were with each other. Maybe.

They may have been split up.

Allura certainly hoped not.

Hunk was a strong guy, physically yes. Kind of emotional as well, he would keep fighting of course. But...in these situations. He wasn't the best alone. Hopefully he didn't freak, or that they were all in the same place. Keith wasn't the best at calming people down, but he was better than nothing for Hunk.

"Now what?" Lance asked, breaking the silence. Allura and Pidge looked over at him, but didn't reply.

"We should make a plan to save them." Shiro suggested then realized how that sounded and looked at the girls, "Not that I'm doubting you, but it's always good to have a fallback plan."

"Plus it seems like some of these women are willing to cheat." Allura added, recounting what had happened earlier, to assure Shiro that she wasn't offended by his comment. He was right, a back up plan was always needed. What if Extropa and the other's decided they wanted to keep the men instead and kept them hostage. Then what? Throwing punches wouldn't get them anywhere, not when they were clearly out numbered.

Pidge and Lance nodded in agreement, like they had the same idea. So the four sat on one bed then started to form their plan.


	16. Chapter 16

The food was weird. Really weird. But a good weird, at least for Lance. While the others seemed to be disgusted by it, Lance was slurping it down. To him, it tasted like ice cream. Really creamy chocolate ice cream. It didn't look like ice cream at all though. No it was shaped like leaves and was an aqua blue with specks of green in it. The food was incredibly slimy though, like it had been dumped in goo then pulled back out. Lance didn't find any taste on the goo though, it was like water. Clear like water as well. So maybe it just came with the leaves.

The rest of the group just gave Lance a weird look as he scarfed down his own food plus the other's since they weren't eating. He didn't care though. Free food.

Oh gosh, he was like Hunk.

But...he just couldn't stop.

"I don't understand how you can eat that." Shiro mumbled as he looked at Lance after he assured that the people that brought them the food was gone. It was clear that he didn't want to offend them. Lance, however, he was fine with insulting a bit.

"I don't know how you can't!" Lance exclaimed as he ate another one of those leaves without hesitation. Which disgusted the rest, again. "It tastes like chocolate ice cream!" He said happily.

Pidge gave him the weirdest look she had given anyone ever before, "No it doesn't." She denied.

"Yes it does."

"It does not."

"It does too."

"It does not."

"It doe-" Lance started but was cut off by someone yelling.

"SHUT UP!" A familiar voice yelled as the woman walked casually into the room yet her facial expression and voice made it very evident that she was highly annoyed. Though it seemed to be more directed at Lance despite the fact that the bickering went both ways.

Lance rolled his eyes after snapping his head over to the voice to see Extropa, the man not liking her very much. But could one really blame him for that? She was highly prejudiced and since he was a dark skinned guy, he hated prejudiced a whole lot. And these people were willing to make slaves of people just because they were different.

Allura gave him a slight look, which he caught. She was telling him to try and be polite, but he just couldn't make himself do it. How could he be polite to someone that he didn't have the least amount of respect for? Possibly, he could be polite to her out of fear. But he doubted that was an option, he wasn't scared. He knew what it felt like to be scared, he'd been scared many times before. This girl, she just made him angry.

"Watch yourself boy."Extropa said with her venemous voice, her eyes glaring daggers into Lance as she talked like she was his elder. Which she may have been, but they didn't know for sure. "Or your friends will have to scrape your pathetic male parts off the walls."

Lance grit his teeth at that, forcing himself not to wince because just the thought of him losing his little buddy made him cringe in agony.

He felt a hand on his shoulder then glanced over to see Shiro's hand on him. Trying to calm him down a bit. It wasn't working in the way Shiro would've wanted, but Lance did force himself to calm down, just so he wouldn't get Shiro disappointed or upset with him. Upsetting Shiro was like upsetting a cute little puppy. It hurt to do.

The boy nodded then hung his head, making sure he wouldn't make eye contact with Extropa. He might end up being 'rude' to her again. Anything he did could be defined by rude from that brat...

"Is it time for the nex-" Allura started, but Pidge's voice intervened.

"I hate to sound ungrateful, but can we get some different food?" Pidge asked while looking down at all their empty plates. Except for Lance, who still had a few leaves on his plate. Which he wasn't ashamed about.

Extropa frowned while looking back at Pidge, "You did not find that to your liking?"

"No, it was not edible for us." Pidge explained calmly as she looked back at Extropa.

The frown grew while the woman looked over at Lance's slimy hands, "He seemed to find it edible."

"He's weird." Pidge countered quickly.

"Hey!" Lance yelled in defense, but no one listened to him. He huffed at that yet he was still ignored. He huffed even louder, then gave up since no one was giving him any attention.

"I suppose." Extropa mumbled then widened her eyes at something. She opened her mouth like she was going to speak, but decided to shake it off. Like it was unimportant. Or she didn't want to say.

Lance noticed Shiro raised an eyebrow, but he didn't question it. So neither did the rest of them. They followed his lead.

"Anyways, I'll get you some other food as we walk, so come on." She stated and gestured with her head for the rest of them to come out the door.

Pidge was the first up and ready, trying to look calm but her stomach was not the type to be quiet. Lance snickered lightly when he heard her stomach growl, only to be cut off when he saw the murderous glare Pidge sent him. Which meant she was embarrassed...silently Lance smirked at that.

He wasn't an asshole that was taking joy from her embarrassment. He was her friend that was taking joy from her embarrassment. Those two were completely different things.

"Come on.." Shiro mumbled with a shake of his head at the two's interactions. His metallic hands grabbed the shoulder sleeve of Lance's shirt, which Allura had convinced the women to give him and Shiro some clothes at least for her sake, and didn't quite force Lance up..but helped him while getting up himself. Allura was last to get up, brushing off dust from her new dress, which was also from the women. The girl was more charismatic than she seemed. She even got Pidge to wear the type of clothes they had here.

When Allura had done that, that's when Lance feared her more. No way in heck would Pidge be caught wearing ancient looking dresses like these. Yet...she was now.

Scary.

"I'm coming big guy, don't worry." Lance assured him with a slight grin while looking back. Shiro closed his eyes but couldn't help the small smile that tugged at his lips. Lance took that as a win.

The group walked in through the hallway, which looked a bit similar to an Earth hotel's hallway...but it wasn't exactly the same. It felt more like the jungle. Though the place was well kept, the colours and just the mood itself felt very wild. It was nice all the same though.

As they walked, Extropa gestured for them to stay still before going into the hotel restaurant right next to them. Well that's what Lance thought it was at least. It certainly smelled like a restaurant, the scent of warmth and food, but there were no windows for him to look through and the sign wasn't written in any of the languages he knew.

It didn't take too long, maybe a couple of minutes, until Extropa came back out with three bowls of a soup looking substance. Lance couldn't exactly see what was inside it, but he saw a few glimpses of liquid so he guessed it was soup. She balanced two of the bowls in one hand and only had one in the other. She did it well though with neither of the liquids being able to escape the bowl.

"Thank you." Allura mumbled as she took the lonely bowl. Shiro and Pidge took the two bowls in the one hand and nodded at Extropa to thank her for it without words. She nodded back but looked slightly annoyed by it.

"Now come on, let's go." Extropa ordered then continued to walk down the hallway before the made it to two large wooden type doors. She put her hand on the handle of the one on the right then smoothly pushed it open. Her hand stayed on it until she got through the door then brought it off, almost letting it close on Lanc'e's face since he thought she was going to hold it for them. He was wrong. Luckily Shiro reached his metal arm out and grabbed it just in time. He held it open as Lance walked out and stayed there to hold it open for the girls too.

Allura nodded in thanks as she walked out and Pidge copied her gesture. Shiro followed after them, letting the door close behind him.

Extropa kept walking, not even caring that they were a bit behind now because of the door thing. None of them bothered to speed up, not caring enough. They could follow her from their distance. They didn't want to get close to her.

Lance grit his teeth even as he just looked at the woman, the way she walked was so high and mighty. Like she was in charge. She was queen.

He wanted to teach her a-

"What?'" He heard Pidge's voice behind him after his head snapped back suddenly, looking for something that he saw out of the corner of his eye. It was brief, he didn't see much of it. Just a dark figure, he was unable to see any features. Or if it had any at all.

A sigh left his lips and his head shook again.

"It was nothing.." Lance mumbled and believed it.

Just a figment of his imagination.


	17. Chapter 17

Shiro and Lance sat up in the stage in their special spot. There was another man sitting beside them though. He wasn't human, but he looked a bit more humanoid than a few of the others Allura had seen before. He kind of looked like the marble girls but with completely black eyes. His face was emotionless and his neck had a chain collar around it that connected to hand cuffs wrapped around his wrists. He never looked at the other two beside him, but Lance was staring at him. He was the one sitting closest to the man and every time he made the slightest of movement, Lance would get closer to Shiro.

Allura was slightly amused by that to be honest, but she had to cut her amusement off short and look at the loud woman in the center of the arena. It was the same one as the first few times, never changing. Allura wasn't exactly fond of her but she could tell she wasn't picking favourites or anything so she did want her to stay there at least.

She glanced over at Pidge to see her listening intently even though the woman was just reintroducing them all and saying what was going on. There wasn't much need to really listen in but Allura admired her effort anyways. After the speech, the woman looked over at Allura and Pidge and gave them a simple nod. A respectful nod, that was all. Nothing more. She respected them for some reason they didn't know, but Allura wouldn't question it.

Glancing over to the side, Allura was able to see some girls walking in from the entrances to the arena, the same way Allura and Pidge had come in. There were only two this time, neither one of them having many human traits. They were the same species, that was sure, but they looked odd. Like...an octopus. But they were standing on four of their tentacles, using the others as arms. They had larger eyes than an octopus would and just in general they were much larger than an octopus. Probably about ten feet tall.

Allura had a feeling that this species...may give someone like Hunk nightmares.

"And here we have the prize!" The woman yelled out as two women started to walk into the arena, both holding chains over their shoulders. The sound of metal wheels clinking against other metal parts filled the woman as they kept walking, slowly starting to reveal what they were bringing in. At first, Allura had thought it was an animal since she had seen the metal bars of the cage...but she was quite wrong.

What was sitting in the center of the cage, was none other than the man she had spoken about before. Hunk.

"Come on." The big man whined as he crawled over to the edges of the cage and wrapped his large hands around the bars, "Please let me go."

The women ignored him as the continued to pull the cage over until it was in the middle. A clanking sound was heard as they dropped the chains onto the ground underneath their feet and started to walk back towards the way they had came in. Both with emotionless expressions plastered onto their face.

"Hunk." Pidge mumbled when she saw her friend, staring intently at him.

Hunk's head snapped over to where the voice came from, almost looking like he was scared when he heard it, but relieve flooded his face when he saw that it was just his friend. "Pidge." he said with a smile on his face. It wasn't a very big smile, but it wasn't small either. However it did show that he calmed down a bit. He wasn't freaking out. That was a win.

"You okay?" Pidge asked, not caring that they had a lot of attention on them. They've always gotten a lot of attention since just being at this planet. She had never gotten shy while there. Not while her friends were still kidnapped.

"Yeah." Hunk sighed and shook his head a little, "But the food here is awful!"

The girl snorted slightly, a bit happy that he was okay enough to make jokes, "Well you are a prisoner."

"So cruel." Hunk said with a slight pout starting to form on his face, his bottom lip slightly quivering, "You don't have to call me a prisoner. I don't want to be a prisoner anymore. Being a prisoner sucks." He exclaimed dramatically as he threw his hand up in the air.

Pidge couldn't help but smile at him again, but it quickly faded as the loud woman slammed her hand into the metallic bar, making a loud noise.

"SHUT UP!" She screamed at Hunk, not even flinching despite the fact that she hit a metal bar bare handed. Hunk quickly quieted down, almost whimpering from the shock she gave him.

The whole crowd quieted down as well, everyone looking at the loud woman now. However, she wasn't talking. Instead, she looked over at the exit that the women had exited through earlier and just nodded.

Allura and Pidge exchanged a worried glance as two other women entered the arena, looking nothing like the ones before. They were a lot bigger and a whole lot less humanoid. They came in wearing purple toques and went to the loud woman's side. They spoke quietly before the two new women nodded and moved their hands slightly in front of them, like they were pushing away the air. But they weren't.

Each time their hands moved, something appeared. At first it was small, only a splinter of some sort of material, Allura was unable to tell what it was, but it soon grow. More pieces started to form and were put together. Like puzzle pieces. It took mere moments before there was a giant jungle gym in the middle of the arena.

Allura glanced over at Pidge curiously to see that the girl's eyes were extremely wide and her expression was priceless. She was both mesmerized and surprised. It was kind of cute to see that on her face. Of course Allura was a bit surprised and amazed by what had happened, but not as much as Pidge was. After all, she's only learned that aliens do exist a few months ago while Allura has known for thousands of years. However, to be fair, she was unconscious for ten thousands of those years.

"Did...did you know they could do that?" Pidge asked as she kept staring at the jungle gym, not even glancing at Allura as she talked but the white haired girl was able to figure out who she was speaking to. It was quite obvious since she was closest to her and the only other person was the whimpering Hunk.

"Yes.. Some species are able to do things like this." Allura nodded with a light smile as she watched Pidge's expression.

Pidge just nodded as a reply, still looking surprised but her expression was starting to calm down. Like it was just sinking into her what had happened and she was slowly accepting it. It was amusing to watch.

"Thank you." The loud woman said to the women beside her as they started walking away. When the two women had left, the loud woman looked back at the competitors with a slow smirk starting to spread across her face.

"Well then, let's begin.'


	18. Chapter 18

"Your goal is to get to the end of the structure." The loud woman announced and pointed at a flag that was over on the far side of the large structure. It seemed easy enough at first glance, but once you started to actually look at the details of it, noticing what you had to do to get to the actual flag...it didn't look very easy anymore.

Pidge glanced over at their competition, noting their tentacles and the lengths of each. She then looked over at the structure again, sighing slightly when she saw that those were definitely come in handy. There were a lot of monkey bar type challenges embedded in the structure. Their long arms would be able to reach them a whole lot better than Pidge or Allura could.

"We can do it." Allura assured Pidge, as if she saw the worry in her eyes. Which she probably could've, the two had strangely grown closer since yesterday. It was unspoken, but they could both feel their bond getting stronger. Each time they worked together, each time they talked, it would get just a tiny bit stronger.

"The only rules are that you can't kill, permanently maim someone, and you have to make it to the flag...the first one there wins." The loud woman announced, her smirk still plastered onto her face, "Now go."

There was a brief moment of silence, no one moved. No one did anything as the last sentence registered into the girls' head. Allura was the first to move, then it was the seafood ladies, going pretty quick but Allura was faster than them. Surprisingly enough, Pidge was last to actually get it in her head. She jerked slightly, like she was surprised or dazed, before starting to run towards the structure.

The girl climbed up the small rock wall with ease, quite a bit behind the other's which was frustrating. Especially since more of her friends were actually watching this. At least Allura was in the front. But that didn't last for too long, as she reached to get one of the bars she was hanging from, she slipped off. It looked like there was some type of goo to keep any traction away. One of the octopus girls got past Allura, her tentacles helping her get a better grip on the bars.

However, that lead didn't last too long either. Instead, she got a part where she was supposed to swing from another bar but she was having a whole lot of trouble with it. It almost seemed like there was some glue on that bar to stop her from swinging off it.

Pidge frowned a bit as she watched them, stopping in her place as she looked around. Everyone was struggling. This challenge...it seemed impossibly hard. What was it even supposed to accomplish?

Her eyes widened slightly as the gears in her head started to turn, started to shift until things slowly made some sort of sense. It wasn't completely fool proof. She could be completely wrong about her assumption...

Yet...she wouldn't be able to do this jungle gym. She didn't want to have to rely on Allura to complete this, especially when it looked like she wasn't doing so well with it herself.

It was worth a shot.

Pidge moved back from the gym then jumped off, thankful that the rock wall she had climbed wasn't too far up. She landed flat on her feet, crouched down a bit at first but she quickly got herself back to standing up. It took a few moments for her to re convince herself to do what she had planned. All eyes were on her, she knew that. Most of them would probably be filled with confusion or judgement, wondering what Pidge was doing or if she was stupid. But she was getting a smirk out of the right person, then Pidge didn't care.

She felt her legs moving, all worry leaving her as she felt more confident in herself. She believed in herself.

The world around her slowed down as her legs kept moving without hesitation. Her mind was racing but she didn't let herself get sidetracked or discouraged. She didn't need to. She knew she was right.

Turning her head slightly while mid run, Pidge was able to see the boys' reactions to what she was doing. Lance was freaking out and yelling at her to go back, Hunk looked confused, and Shiro was just smiling. He trusted her.

Then she turned her head the other way to see Allura. The girl looked a bit confused as well, but Pidge was clearly able to see in the girl's eyes that she trusted her too. She believed in her as well.

Pidge had to do this.

Her feet kept moving until she saw the platform where the she could see the flag just standing there, wrinkling as it blew to the side from the wind. Pidge pushed herself off the sand without hesitation, jumping onto the platform and grabbing on to the flag pole. Slowly, the girl's head moved up and turned around a little with her gaze darting between everyone. The whole audience was silent while Pidge waited for the long pause to be over. The silence made her feel eery about this whole thing. She was almost doubting herself again.

The doubt washed away though when she saw the loud woman smile slightly as the boos emerged from the crowd. Curse words and foul names could be heard from the audience, all of them pointed at Pidge. An octopus woman was even yelling 'cheater' at Pidge from behind her. But the smile from the woman still reassured Pidge, she wasn't hesitant about this. Her doubts were gone.

The loud woman raised a hand towards the audience, quieting some of them down but there were still a few who kept screaming at the girl. They hushed down quite quickly when they received a glare from the woman though.

"And I do believe..." The loud woman started, taking a pause as she looked around at the crowd, examining all their faces. Their expressions. Most of them were angry while some were confused but no one, not even the participants knew for sure what the woman would declare. "That our human, Pidge, is the winner."

And the screaming started once again.


	19. Chapter 19

"HOW IN THE WORLD DOES THAT COUNT?" A voice screamed from the stage at the announcement of Pidge's victory. Honestly, considering everyone was booing her already, she wouldn't have been effected by it had it been some random alien. Someone she didn't know nor would ever see again. But...it was Lance.

She watched as Shiro smacked Lance in the arm in the stage to shut him up. It worked, thankfully, but Lance still freaked out about the whole thing. Pidge groaned a bit. She hoped he would've been able to trust her.

"Quiet down!" The loud woman screeched, glaring especially at Mr. Big Mouth.

Lance paled and stopped making his gestures, sitting quietly. A smug expression grew on Pidge's face at the sheepish look Lance had. Shiro didn't look sheepish like he did though, he trusted Pidge, but he was still confused on what was going on. However, he kept a straight face on for her which was nice of him.

"If anyone here had actually listened." The woman growled, sending everyone in the audience who was screaming or looking confused a harsh glare until they wore the same expression Lance did, "You would have known that I never said the meaning of this contest like I did the other ones."

"So?" Someone yelled. It wasn't Lance, but the voice was familiar. In a bad way. Pidge's eyes scanned the crowd after hearing the voice, trying to find anyone that looked familiar or was at least yelling. But she found no one.

"This competition was nothing physical." The loud woman went on, ignoring the voice in the crowd, "This competition was a battle of the minds. Of the wits. Only the smartest, the ones with the most common sense, and the best listeners would've been able to realize that I mentioned nothing about the challenge course here. I only said that you had to get to the flag." She stopped then gestured over to Pidge with her hand, "And she was first to do so."

"Hold on, what?" One of the octopus ladies shouted, her voice sounding enraged now. She jumped off of the structure and marched over to where the loud woman stood. A scowl placed on her face and she pointed one of her tentacle accusingly at her, "We didn't sign up for a battle of the wits."

"Well this plan wouldn't have worked as well if you had known you were going in for a battle of the wits." The woman stated bluntly, a smug smile spread across her lips as she stared the octopus woman down.

"We didn't sign up for this." The octopus woman repeated with a growl.

The loud woman rolled her eyes, annoyed with the other woman, "Neither did they, now did they? I don't believe those two women signed up for any of this. They've just been forced to repeat challenge after challenge to win their friends back."

"So?" She huffed and crossed two of her tentacle arms, the rest laying by her side.

"So I was just making it more fair for them." The loud woman replied, sounding a bit more irked, "They are foreigners to our world, shouldn't we treat them with some more hospitality?"

"They're friends with _males._ " The octopus stated, growling when she got to the last word.

"And that one over there.." The loud woman started and jerked her head over to where the other octopus lady was standing on the gym, seeming nervous, "Seems to be dating a total bitch but I'm not judging _her._ "

Someone in the crowd started ooing at the 'burn' the loud woman laid out. Curiously, Pidge glanced up to see Lance suddenly on her side again (Maybe?) and cheering at the insult. A ghost of a smirk tugged at the loud woman's lips at Lance's own way of cheering while the octopus woman huffed at her, at a lost for words.

"And so," The woman continued and nodded at Pidge, her expression was a bit different. It wasn't softness or anything. It was just a nod out of respect again. "We have a winner."

There were a few more cheers that time, mainly from Lance and Shiro, but the majority of the arena stayed quiet. Pidge didn't care though, not when she saw some woman going to release Hunk from his cage. He smiled lightly and thanks the two unlocking the cage profusely, but they just ignored them. They weren't annoyed or anything, not from what Pidge could tell, but they were just acting professional. It didn't stop Hunk from continuously thanking them for letting him out.

As the cage door opened, Hunk burst out then headed directly towards Pidge and Allura. However, one of the woman that let him out grabbed onto his shoulder and stopped him in his path. He pouted slightly as he turned to face the woman but she just shook her head and pointed up at where Lance and Shiro sat, gesturing that he would go with them.

Hunk didn't look very happy about that, but he didn't argue it either. He slumped over a bit but walked alongside the woman who still held onto his shoulder, walking with her until they went through an exit and was out of Pidge's sight.

"Good job." A familiar voice spoke from behind Pidge, the girl glanced back to see Allura climbing off of the structure along with the other octopus girl as the 'sorcerers' from before came over to take it down.

"Thanks." Pidge said with a light smile, enjoying the compliment.

"I would've never guessed." Allura stated as she looked at Pidge, her own smile forming on her face, "You're a great aspect to team Voltron."

Pidge paused for a moment when Allura said that. That was a compliment, obviously yeah. But it felt kind of weird. Pidge could easily tell that Allura was being genuine, since she was, but the compliment itself felt off. In a way, it felt like Allura was saying that Pidge was just another tool in team Voltron. That they were only team Voltron, nothing more.

The girl frowned as her mind started freaking out and she forced it to go away. She swept it under the rug in her head. She was just overreacting. It obviously wasn't meant in that way so why should she take it like that?

"You okay?" Allura asked with a frown while she looked at Pidge.

Pidge snapped herself out of it completely when she heard Allura's voice, giving the white haired girl a simple nod to reassure her. Allura didn't seem to be very convinced by the nod but she didn't fight it either. Pidge wasn't sure whether she was grateful for that or not.

Maybe it meant Allura didn't care?

The girl frowned as that thought popped up in her head too but she forced herself to sweep it under the rug again. It was kind of hard to the second time, but with the loud woman staring at them it was easier to get distracted.

"That ended earlier than I thought." The loud woman exclaimed, his voice down now so she could talk normally to them, "I am Atalanta, by the way." She told them.

Pidge nodded, telling her that she at least acknowledged what the woman had said.

"Anyways," Atalanta continued, "Would you guys like a break or would you like to start the next challenge in a few moments? Once we get it set up of course."

Pidge opened her mouth to reply, but Allura cut her off.

"We'd like to start it as soon as we can." Allura said with a nod while Pidge glared at her.

 _Altean bitch._


	20. Chapter 20

"I want a break." Pidge stated right after Allura's answer, cutting off whatever Atalanta was going to say too.

Allura blinked then turned her head over to Pidge curiously, not saying anything but she looked a bit surprised by Pidge's reply.

"I suppose..." Atalanta mumbled, looking at Pidge too, "If you can agree on something, I'll let you have it."

Pidge turned back at Allura, her eyes stern but confident. Allura still held a confused expression stretched across her face but looked back over at Atalanta and nodded, "Okay. We'll take a break."

Atalanta nodded then walked away from them, over to some other ladies.

Honestly, Pidge didn't need a break nor want one. She only sprinted a little, there was no need for a break really. And Pidge wanted to hurry up and get the rest of her members so she could leave this insane planet...but she didn't want Allura saying her answers for her. She didn't want Allura deciding what she needs or doesn't. She didn't want Allura ruling her life.

"I guess we better go then." Allura mumbled while keeping her gaze on Pidge still. Pidge turned away from the white haired woman, still feeling her eyes on her body but she kept her head turned to make sure Allura got the hint. Pidge was ticked now.

"Yeah." Pidge replied bitterly and started to walk towards the entrance they had come in, making brief eye contact with Lance and Shiro to tell them what was going on. Shiro nodded while Lance just looked as confused as ever. Shiro touched Lance's shoulders as he stood up from his seat, the brown haired guy following him shortly after. The two started walking up the stairs and towards one of the exits for the audience when they ran into Hunk. The man looked pretty tired, the girl beside him looking even more annoyed than he was tired.

Hunk complained about something to the two, Pidge guessed about climbing the stairs, then a shock expression grew on him about whatever it was Shiro told him. Hunk looked like he gave up then just laid on the floor while Lance rolled his eyes and started to yell a bit. Hunk stayed on the ground for a few moments before he received a kick on the side by the girl, then he jolted back up like nothing had happened. The group quickly left Pidge's line of vision, going into the coliseum and most likely the stairs.

Pidge started walking again, making it to the exit of the arena behind Allura. She sped up her pace a bit so that she could be in the lead, annoyed that Allura was. Really annoyed about it. She couldn't exactly explain why she was super annoyed but she knew she was. So to get rid of that feeling, she went to the front.

She heard a sigh from behind, revealing what Allura was thinking. Pidge huffed and pushed it away from her mind. Who cared what that stupid Altean thought? Not her.

As the two walked, they exited the coliseum entirely, with more eyes on them than Pidge would've liked, and spotted the three boys waiting by a tree for them. The girl that had accompanied Hunk up the stairs then down them again was still beside them, leaning on the bark of the tree with her arms crossed. She looked utterly annoyed and glared at Hunk every time he wasn't looking and even a few times while he was.

"Hey." Pidge greeted as she made her way over to them, the grass rustling beneath her feet while she walked towards the tree they hung around at, Allura coming in from behind her.

Shiro was first to notice her, his head jerking towards them both and nodding when he spotted them, his way of a greeting. "Nice job out there Pidge." Shiro exclaimed as the girl came closer to her comrades, ignoring Hunk's escort as she pushed herself off the tree and walked away with a relieved look on her face.

"Thanks." Pidge said sheepishly with a small smile, liking the compliment from Shiro.

"Yeah I totally doubted you there." Lance stated honestly with a stupid grin, not shameful of his words at all. He just got a glare from Pidge instead. "But!" He added while his stupid grin grew, "That just means that I wasn't smart enough to get it!" he exclaimed. Pidge gave him a look, making sure he knew that she saw straight through his suck up act. Lance just sighed but accepted his defeat.

"Yeah. Thank you!" Hunk said with a smile. "I was worried at first but then I saw that girl smile and totally you knew you did the right thing!" He stated, waving his hands around all over the place, using them to talk.

"Cool." Pidge replied with her own smile.

"You did well." Allura agreed with the other two from over beside Pidge. However, when she said it, it just felt...wrong. Like a jab at her. In response, Pidge huffed before looking away.

The compliment was just like the other ones she received from the guys but Pidge just couldn't help taking it as an insult. She couldn't help believing that there was another meaning hidden beneath it, another harsh meaning.

"What?" Allura questioned when Pidge looked away but she didn't reply to that either. She could feel the other guys' eyes on her, all of them were confused, but it didn't convince her enough to talk.

"Pidge?" Shiro asked questionably, a light frown forming on his face.

"It's nothing." Pidge huffed at him before sighing and letting herself calm down, "Sorry. It's nothing."

Shiro frowned, not really believing her but thankfully he didn't press on it.

"Okay. So now what?" Lance piped up, changing the subject to Pidge's relief even though she could still feel Allura's eyes on her.

"How about some grub?" Hunk offered, holding onto his stomach to emphasize his hunger problem he was experiencing.

"We can try to find some." Shiro mumbled and looked around the place. Pidge glanced around too out of curiousity, noticing that there were a lot of houses around but she couldn't read any of the words. They were in another language.

No one said anything, but they didn't need to. They all had a pretty tight bond with each other, even if one of them was ticked. They knew what the other was thinking. So the five of them ended up heading in the same direction. The direction they had left Coran in before.

Hunk's eyes moved around each building, looking through the windows and trying to figure out if they were a restaurant. The others ignored him, expecting the behaviour from him. A few times they got curious and looked in as well but they had realized that they had no money to buy anything anyways. Extropa had gotten them all food last time, they didn't have to pay for it. Had she?

"Think he's still there?" Shiro asked quietly as they got through the town area and started walking into the forest they had originally came from. Fortunately, Allura had remembered precisely where they had come from.

"I believe he would be. Or he would've found us." Allura stated, not looking at them as she moved a branch out of her way. The branch almost snapped back and hit Pidge but Shiro grabbed it with his metal arm before it could. Shiro frowned while Pidge scowled at Allura. However, she wiped off the scowl and caught up a bit.

Pidge crouched down quickly and broke off a piece of a branch. She stood up again and aimed to throw it at Allura while her back was turned but Shiro grabbed her arm. Pidge looked back to see Shiro staring at her, both looking a bit disappointed and confused at her behaviour. She couldn't really blame him either, Pidge had no idea what had come over her. But she did know that she was just getting sick and tired of Allura.

"Pidge, you alright?" Lance asked, popping his head out from behind Shiro, Hunk looking at her from behind him.

"I'm fine." Pidge snapped at him before she turned her head back to in front of her. The girl let out a breath before taking a deep one in. "I...I think I'm going to go relax somewhere else. Maybe calm down. Just the pressure..." Pidge mumbled and turned around. She watched as the guys moved to the side and she walked out of the path they had come from even though she knew it wasn't the pressure.

It was just...Allura.

Allura made her so mad and she didn't even know why anymore.

Their bond was slowly crumbling for Pidge and she didn't want to stop it.


	21. Chapter 21

Pidge was acting weird. Allura could see that at least. The girl seemed fine only moments before though. A bit after the competition was when it had started. She just seemed to be annoyed with Allura in general. However, Pidge did say that it was just pressure getting to her so that could've been it. Allura clung to that.

Yet at the same time...Allura was starting to get irked with Pidge. Annoyed with how she acted. She wasn't extremely annoyed, not enough to make it known. Not enough to storm out like Pidge did but they were slowly getting to her.

"I wonder what's her problem..." Allura accidentally grumbled, not having meant to let it slip. A part of her hoped that no one had heard the comment but she heard a sigh from behind her. Shiro heard.

"She said it was stress and it has been a stressful few days for you two." Shiro exclaimed, fully believing that, "But don't worry. We'll get Keith back no matter what."

Allura nodded, acting as if that reassured her. It didn't because honestly she had faith in both her and Pidge, despite the mood. She didn't need reassuring. She always believed in Voltron.

"Well I mean I'm fine with just leaving him here." Lance chimed in. The small joke was enough to lower the tension that Pidge had thrown over them all before leaving and let the few have a giggle.

"We're not leaving him here." Shiro said with a sigh but there was a light smile on his face to show that it helped him a little bit too.

The four started to travel in silence again but the tension had been lifted completely. Now with Pidge gone they were able to feel more comfortable among st each other. Allura wondered if Pidge always had that type of effect. Well after all, when they had first started out being Voltron it was Pidge who held them back. She started the tension again then too.

Allura frowned as she thought about it then felt guilty for thinking such an awful thing about her friend...but she couldn't quite stop. The thoughts kept flooding through her head. Horrible and shameful thoughts. Each of them felt true though. Each of them made Allura detest Pidge even more. It was like her eyes were opening for the first time in a long time.

"You okay?" Shiro asked Allura after she stopped for a moment. The woman grit her teeth as she forced the thought in her mind at that current moment to move away enough for her to walk or talk.

"Fine..." Allura mumbled as her feet started to move again, listening as a branch broke underneath her foot. The thoughts stopped coming in at an unreasonable rate now, giving her some time to relax. To calm down and rethink her thoughts. Try to think more positively.

"I don't think you are..." Shiro mumbled, seeming offended, "What's up with you and Pidge? Did something happen? You both seem really tense."

"I'm fine." Allura repeated herself, more firmly this time so she sounded truthful, "Just getting tired of having to do this. I hope we can get Keith back soon so we can go." she explained.

Shiro didn't reply but when she glanced back he nodded so she felt a little better.

As the girl looked back in front of her again, she finally walked out of the tree filled part of the forest and into a clearing. A clearing with quicksand and no giant ship. Allura smiled a little out of relief at the disappearance of their ship. She assumed that it meant Coran had fixed it and got it out of the quicksand. However, she had no idea where it had gone and neither had the others.

"Is Coran okay?" Shiro asked out loud when they also saw the empty quicksand. The fact that he automatically worried about Coran made Allura smile a bit.

"I'm assuming he is." Allura exclaimed with a nod, "Otherwise he probably would've contacted us to tell us or we would've seen him if he was captured."

"Wouldn't he have contacted to tell us if he got the ship ready too?" Lance added in, peeking out from behind Shiro. He glanced over at the quicksand then brought his gaze up to the sky above where the two suns shone brightly. He squinted a little bit as he traced through the sky, like he was looking for something.

"Possibly." Allura nodded in agreement, frowning again, "But...maybe he knew that the planet doesn't like males and decided it wouldn't be smart to make himself known in case someone else has our communicators?" She offered weakly.

The others nodded, accepting her explanation but it was clear that none of them believed it. She didn't even believe it.

"Hunk, how about you stay here and..." Allura paused and frowned a little bit. She'd rather have him with her, helping motivate her in the crowds...but if there was any trouble he would be the one that could deal with it, "Actually maybe Shiro should." she finally decided despite her desires.

Shiro gave a nod and so did Hunk, who actually seemed to be relieved that he didn't have to stay alone in a strange planet in a creepy looking forest with men hating women around.

"Come on then." Allura mumbled and turned on her heel, heading to walk back into the path they had come from. The other two followed her lead, Shiro stayed there, until they were able to make it back to the coliseum.

Hunk and Lance were escorted by a woman over to where the slaves sat while Allura was escorted back to the arena despite the fact that she knew where it was anyways. As she entered the arena and the crowds of people started to pool in again after the break, Allura spotted Pidge casually talking to the loud woman. They were both leaning on the walls of the arena, just chatting. Pidge was giggling at something and the woman was smiling back at her.

"Hey." Allura greeted as she approached the two. Pidge scowled when she saw the white haired girl but Allura ignored it. Whatever was going on with, she could deal with it on her own and Allura would remain un effected. Even so...there was still a gnawing feeling in her stomach. It wanted to burst, to scream, to attack. But she held it down, she swallowed it down like she would any liquid.

"Good, you're here." The woman said with a nod, still smiling lightly, "That means we can get started." she stated.

"Yep." Pidge replied with a nod as well. "She took a while." The girl exclaimed as if Allura wasn't even there.

Allura glared at her but the woman ignored her both.

"Well come on you two," The woman gestured for them to come to the middle where she was going, "It's time for your last challenge. The challenge of strength."

Allura glanced at Pidge and nodded, hoping she returned the gesture. Instead, the girl just kept her eyes away.

Hopefully...Allura could do this on her own...


	22. Chapter 22

Keith was pulled out and into the arena a mere few seconds after Atalanta announced the last and final challenge. He was in a cage just like Hunk's but it seemed to be more...intense. The bars looked stronger, made out of metal or rock. There were barely any gaps in between each bar and you could just barely see him. He was almost completely walled in. From what they were able to see, Keith was sitting in the middle of the cage with the same type of undergarments the others had. It was amusing to see, but also a little...odd. Especially since it was so different from the rest.

"What's this?" Atalanta questioned as she brought her gaze to the woman dragging him in. Her eyes traced across the cell with a raised eyebrow before they fell back onto the woman, "Has he been that bad? This cage is for the more dangerous prisoners."

"We found a dagger on him that showed us who he really was. He disguised his face with the face of a human but he didn't plan thoroughly." One of the woman stated, her eyes stern as she held out a dagger in her hand, Keith's dagger. The dagger that was given to him long ago and ended up proving that he was Galra.

"He's..." Atalanta mumbled with a frown as she stared down at the dagger. Gently, she reached over and took it into her own hands, tracing her finger along the blade, "It's a good dagger." she concluded.

"Agreed but look at the symbol." The other woman said and pointed at the symbol on the hilt.

"I saw it already. I'm not a moron." She replied with an eye roll. The other woman frowned then took a step back, letting Atalanta do whatever she was doing.

Her finger traced across the symbol a few times, searching for something. Possibly for it to be fake or something. After a few moments, her finger found its way to the edge of the hilt and circled it. Feeling it. She shook her head as she pulled her hand off the dagger then moved over to the cell where Keith was. "How did you get this?" Atalanta asked and peered into the opening of the cell, "Did you steal it?"

"I didn't steal it..." Keith grumbled as he was accused of it again, "It was given to me but I don't remember who, when, or why."

"That doesn't help your case." Atalanta replied with a stern look, "Did you steal this?" she repeated her question.

"No." Keith repeated his answer but more firmly this time. He didn't add anything else, just his no.

"Are you Galra?"

Keith frowned, "Part."

Atalanta nodded then glanced over at the woman who gave Atalanta the dagger, "Has this been informed to the public?"

"It has not." The woman answered her.

Atalanta frowned, "And why not? We should've been advertising the fact that we had a part Galra slave, much more valuable than a mere human slave. You falsely advertised it and because of that not as many people were able to try out to be the competition. Maybe the people that are actually competing don't even want to win a Galra slave." she stated with a glare at the woman in front of the. The woman gave a sheepish look but apologized quickly.

"Have you all heard what I said?" Atalanta yelled as she turned back towards the crowd, watching the faces of each of them. There were a few nods, the ones from closer in the stadium. The rest either shook their heads or gave dull looks. Lance and Hunk weren't looking too thrilled about what was going on though, even if they couldn't hear it. It wasn't stupid to assume that something bad is happening.

"Well we have a part Galra slave up for grabs!" Atalanta announced and the eyes of the crowds widened a bit at the news, "That has been falsely advertised as a pure human!"

Some of the faces in the crowds started to reveal anger. A few people yelled that it wasn't fair while other's just kind of slumped in their seats.

"And because of the rules...we can either postpone the battle and take in all the applications..." Atalanta declared and glanced around at the crowd, "or everyone that wants to have a chance to win the part Galra slave can enter the battle now."

Pidge frowned as people started screaming to postpone while the majority screamed for everyone to do it. That was only part of why she was frowning. Atalanta said battle twice instead of challenge. This was going to be a fight.

Her eyes fell over to Allura and she watched her for a reaction. She didn't seem to be very nervous but looks could easily be deceiving. Pidge couldn't help but think that Allura was being a coward in her head now. She rarely did get out and fight in the action. She stayed hidden in the castle.

Pidge shook her head at that thought. No...that wasn't fair. She did come out and battle when she was needed. And she was strong too, she wasn't a weakling.

Yet the one good thought that she had, the one thought that was trying to fight away all her negative thoughts, was quickly washed away. The negative thoughts flooded in and clouded her judgement.

"I guess that means that everyone who wants to compete can compete." Atalanta stated then held the dagger up in the air before she started yelling, "If you wish to compete for the part Galra slave then meet down here with a partner. You have two minutes!"

The crowd's eyes widened and people started scrambling. Searching for a partner. It looked like some grabbed total strangers while others just went with the person beside them. Pretty soon, there was a group of about thirty girls in the arena. Even so, there was still a large audience around them.

"A bigger group than I thought?" Atalanta mumbled as she glanced around the group, noticing that the girls themselves took up a large chunk of the arena, "This wasn't the greatest plan I guess."

She turned her head back to the women guarding Keith's cage. "You." she yelled and pointed at one of them, the one not shooing away a few girls.

The woman brought her eyes up to Atalanta, it wasn't the same one that handed her the dagger. This time, it was the more quiet one. "Yes?" She asked, staring at Atalanta.

"Get me the liquid."

She nodded and darted off.

Atalanta frowned a little bit as she watched the woman off then turned her direction back to the group in front of her. Her eyes fell on the group and flashed a bright pink before they returned to normal. The women that were in front of Atalanta started to get a little woozy. A few placed their hands on their heads while the others stumbled.

Pidge and Allura watched as a few of the girls collapsed, but they themselves didn't feel anything different.

"What the heck?" Pidge mumbled as Atalanta started walking over to the two after the woman fetched her the giant bucket of liquid.

"Sorry girls." Atalanta apologized and dipped her fingers into the liquid, "It seems like there's a change in plans." she pulled her hand out of the bucket then flicked the liquid at their faces.

The moment the liquid touched them, they passed out.


	23. Chapter 23

It wasn't like last time they had ended up passing out. It was different. Pidge wasn't clamped in a room with a crying baby or anything of the sort. Actually, she was able to see other people this time. Allura was beside her and all of the other women that signed up for the challenge or...battle, were in the room as well. It was a large room too. A large purple room that had no walls, at least none that Pidge could see. She supposed they could have just been painted black but the purple floor seemed to keep going on and on. It was like they were in an abyss.

An abyss with a floor.

As she looked around at the people around her, Pidge could see that everyone else seemed confused too. They didn't know what was going on either. Well except for one person, there was one person that stuck out. The woman from the forest, the one that had tried to kill Allura. She had a stern expression plastered on her face and determination in her eyes. The eyes that were glued right on Allura.

A wicked thought passed through Pidge's head but she forced it aside. Though she wasn't completely ashamed of that thought, even though she should've been, she forced it away. She didn't want to have a sinful thought like that in her head...even if she ended up agreeing with it.

"Hello everyone." A voice greeted, a familiar voice but it was very static. Glancing up to where the voice came from, Pidge saw a face. A giant face. Atalanta's face just floating above the group of girls. It wasn't the real woman obviously. The graphics weren't even slightly believable but even so the fact that her face would glitch out every few seconds and be broken in half could tell most people that it wasn't real.

Allura and Pidge were clearly calm about it since they were used to such things but the other girls were surprised. Something new to them, Pidge assumed by their faces. Considering how caveman like the women seemed to live, it was surprising to see how much technology they were able to create. Like how they were even able to bring all these women into the same place with what, a liquid? Pidge couldn't even tell if they were teleported or it was their subconsciousness in the area. Pidge guessed that they were teleported there somehow though. This felt...different than the time with the baby. They felt more real there.

"I hope you're all feeling better." She went on, "For this battle of the strengths, you are to be in your pairs and you are to fight. No weapons or any type of magic is allowed in this battle."

Pidge frowned a little at that. She didn't have any magic or the only magic Allura had was useless but...weapons. Weapons were really helpful with Pidge. She was agile, yes, but she wasn't really a hands on fighter. Her bayward helped her a lot. She was mainly the techie within the group.

"Do not kill anyone and try not to permanently injure someone, that would be awful." Atalanta stated with a slight smirk, "Anyways, those are the rules. Now, the pair standing wins. The whole pair has to be standing. Well...have fun then." at the last word, her image faded out and it was just the large group of girls.

It was as if the world paused the next few seconds after Atlanta spoke, the words trying to find their way into the minds. The words that were just spoken forced their way into each woman's head until everyone actually realized what was just said.

Then after that, it became complete chaos.

Fists were flying and smashed into other people. There were a few screams before some people dropped but they came up pretty quickly. No one was going down that easily. Pidge and Allura were the only ones that didn't immediately attacked.

Allura punched or pushed some people that came their way while Pidge just dodged. It was easy for her to dodge since not many of them were actually trying, they were just throwing punches and hoping to hit something. There were a few people that clearly and deliberately went after Pidge but she had enough skill to dodge them too. However, when she was hoping Allura would push or punch them away using her strength, she didn't. She wasn't even looking in Pidge's direction. Which meant Pidge had to try and push them away herself. She threw a few punches at their stomachs and it got a few but one of them was actually able to hit her back.

Stumbling a little from the brute force of the woman, Pidge held her hands out to her sides to try and gain her balance back. It took a few moments but by that time the woman had landed another hit on her shoulder. With the pain from the attack of the woman, Pidge's balance was gone completely and she tumbled to the ground. A stinging sensation arose from her shoulder and Pidge glanced back at Allura again, hoping for help. However, she still paid Pidge no attention whilst standing there and looked around at everyone else.

With a grunt, Pidge forced her leg over to the woman that had attacked and kicked her in the shins. The woman wobbled back a bit as Pidge changed the direction of her next kick, aiming for the stomach. Fortunately, the kick made impact and the woman toppled down but not for very long. Using the small time she had left to move, Pidge got up and ran over to the other side, not bothering to be with Allura. If the white haired woman wouldn't help Pidge then there was no reason for her to be with her in the first place. Not like Pidge would help Allura back.

As the chaotic rampage went on, more and more girls kept hitting the ground and stopped getting up. Probably not dead but it was hard to be certain of. With alien women it was hard to tell what was with them when there were so many different ones it was hard to keep track of everyone's inner organs and how their body functioned. It was interesting but hard to understand.

She glanced around the room a bit, keeping her hands in front of her to keep herself in a defensive position. She wasn't an offensive person, not in this way at least. She'd just let the people finish each other off before getting rid of the last few. That was her plan at least.

However, it was tougher than she thought. Since she had gotten attacked, the other girls noticed how quick she was to fall. So they went for her.

After squeezing through some fighting girls, Pidge was able to escape the few women that were after her. They got lost in the large crowd of people, the large crowd of women who were quickly falling. Though no magic or weapons were used, there were still some people with special abilities. People larger, stronger, faster, or just even more agile than the others. The weaker ones with nothing extraordinary about them were the ones falling quicker.

As she moved through some more girls, just trying to stay away from it all, she couldn't help but glance at Allura. The white haired woman was getting quite a few people after her. Whether they believed it was because she was weak or strong, Pidge didn't know. However, she didn't care either. Allura hadn't helped her, she had let Pidge get attacked.

Pidge felt no shame for leaving Allura on her own. Besides, she had her own problems. She had no time to worry about the stupid Altean when she was supposed to keep herself safe. She could only worry about herself in a situation like that.

As Pidge ducked and rolled to avoid people, she watched as more and more women fell until there were only about ten left. The ground was littered with unmoving bodies. A few of the women that were still standing, still awake, were pretty bruised up. They were probably the ones that had gotten right into the fighting. However the other girls, they weren't as bad. Some of the smaller ones, the ones that would've been able to sneak past much more easier, had no bruises at all. There was one woman though, one woman that was very large but didn't have a single scratch on her.

The woman herself, she wasn't unfamiliar either.

"Altean." The large woman hissed, glaring at Allura as the name popped up in Pidge's head. Allura jerked her head up to see the woman glaring at her, the eyes trying to burn off Allura's flesh.

"Kisna." Pidge mumbled to herself at the memory of the name.

The woman didn't even acknowledge Pidge's presence. Instead, her eyes peeled off of Allura then over at the others that were still around. In the blink of an eye, almost all of them fell to the ground with only Pidge, Allura, and another girl left standing. It was hard to see, almost impossible. It was like a blur of blue zooming across the arena and hitting the other girls in the head. When the moment passed, they all just fell.

And so, Kisna had her eyes back on Allura.

She hissed at Allura then charged her with her fist ready.

" _Altean bitch_."

And Allura went flying.


	24. Chapter 24

She didn't hit any walls, there were none for her to even hit. Instead, Allura flew about a kilometer back before landing on the ground. A sharp pain jabbed at her back as she landed with a large thud. The ground was hard on her back as it smashed into it, almost as hard as stone.

Stars danced around her head as she moved upwards, trying to sit back up to fight back. She wasn't even able to get herself up a little bit before a foot pressed itself against her chest then pushed her back to the ground with incredible strength. As the stars passed away, Allura tried to pull herself up again but the strength of the foot kept her down so she couldn't move up.

Grunting, Allura wrapped her hands around the ankle of leg holding the foot and tried to push it off but she was unsuccessful. Even with the Altean strength Allura held, it wasn't good enough. The foot was firmly planted on her.

She glanced over at Pidge for help but saw that Pidge was preoccupied with the partner of the woman. They were both about an equal match, neither of them being the offensive type but they didn't exactly have a choice in the matter. However, it did look like Pidge was winning and that was comforting to Allura but for a different reason. A part of her inside her heart wanted to see Pidge get hurt, to at least get punched in the face. She hated that she wanted it, that she was secretly wishing for it, but she couldn't stop it. She was comforted by it though, as stated before, even if it was just because they might be able to get Keith back.

That was, if Allura could stop the woman pushing her down.

"You don't care about anyone, do you?" The woman hissed at Allura, her foot staying unmoved on her chest but she wasn't making any more attacks on Allura. At least not for the moment. Allura had no idea why the woman wouldn't take a shot while she had the chance. Maybe it was from her own cockiness or maybe she wished to play with Allura as if she was her dinner.

"What?" Allura groaned, her grip still tightened around the woman's ankle and kept trying to use her own strength to push her away. Her strength, however, was much less than the woman on top of her. Allura's strength was that of an insect's while Kisna was of a lion.

"You're kingdom, your _Voltron_ ," She spat out the last word and pushed harder on Allura's chest, taunting her and proving her strength, "Killed my husband, the only person in the world who had been dear to me. The foot of Voltron landed right on my house, destroying him. I never even got to see his body." she explained. Her tone had started to go soft but by the end, the last sentence, it was turning deadly again. It was full of rage and hate towards Allura in particular. There was not acknowledgement of Pidge's existence except for the partner who attacked her.

"Voltron was made to protect people." Allura stated, her voice staggering and matching her breath as she pushed even harder on the ankle. Despite the obvious fact that the woman ontop of her was much stronger than Allura, she kept pushing. She kept pushing and pushing because if she couldn't beat the alien towering over her then Keith would be doomed. Or at least, Allura would have to go to unfriendly terms with the planet and she didn't want that. The only planet Voltron was supposed to be on bad terms with was the Galra's planet. They were the only ones that she wanted to make enemies with. All the other planets...well she hoped to become allies with them all. Even the one that kidnapped her friends.

"Well it didn't do its job very well." The woman hissed at her, pushing harder on her chest before letting some of the weight go. Her glare remained harsh as she stared at Allura, death threatening in her eyes, "I could kill you right now." she stated, her tone venomous.

"You won't win then." Allura weakly told her as she kept trying. She knew it wasn't great, but it was the only thing she could think of.

The woman let out a low, harsh, chuckle, "I don't care about winning. The Galra boy is worth nothing to me, I care not for slaves."

"Then why are you doing this?" Allura groaned, biting her lip while she forced herself to pull out more strength than she even believed that she held. The extra strength, however, did not help much. It only made her tip over slightly but she quickly caught herself. In response to the strength Allura pulled from her core, Kisna lifted her foot up and went to slam it down hard on her chest.

Yet, Allura was quick. She moved her hand up and grabbed onto the ankle again. Instead of trying to pull it up, she pushed the leg over to the side to make her lose balance. Fortunately for Allura, her plan worked and Kisna toppled down as Allura rolled to the side to avoid her body.

As the woman staggered while hitting the floor, her brain not quite taking in what had just happened, Allura used it to her advantage. She used her legs to jump up quickly so she was standing then aimed a hard kick at the woman's side.

However, Allura wasn't as fortunate again. Though the kick hit Kisna right where Allura had aimed, it didn't seem to even phase her. Instead, it just got Kisna more angry towards Allura.

So as her mind raced, Allura's brain landed on a solution. She turned on her heel and ran into the unknown abyss waiting for her.


	25. Chapter 25

It was dark, but they were able to see what was going on. The screen was mainly focused on Pidge though, since Allura and the woman were out of sight. It had been highly focused on the woman, who Lance couldn't remember the name of, and Allura before. When she had her foot pressing down on Allura's chest. They couldn't hear what she was saying, but the woman was clearly angry.

Though he couldn't remember her name, he definitely recognized her from the time they were attacked by the weird monster. She was angry at Allura then too. She may have attacked her if she wasn't stopped then.

Of course, Lance fully believed that his gorgeous Altean girlfriend could beat her...but seeing her lay underneath the woman in distress before running away made him have some doubt. He would try to push the doubt away, to remind himself that Allura was smart and she had a plan, yet he couldn't help but get worried. If Allura was gone, then who would pilot the ship? Who would have Lance's children?

Also she was his friend. That was a big issue as well, obviously, but that was just too...obvious. He needed to focus on other parts at that moment. Especially about his children. He couldn't accept his ten baby girls and boys being borne from ANOTHER woman. That was just crazy to him.

"They're going to do alright, right?" Hunk asked nervously, taking a break from chewing his already broken nails just to say that sentence. It took a total of two seconds before he went back to chewing.

"Yeah. She just...seems strong. She has nothing on our girls." Lance stated confidently though his mind thought otherwise.

"Are you sure?" Hunk questioned, his eyes glued to the screen where Pidge continued to fight. It wasn't much fighting though, it was mainly Pidge using her speed and agility to dodge the larger brute's smaller brute sidekick and try a few swipes at her. She was able to get a few good ones on her, like at the knee and such, but the woman would keep pushing. It was hard to see whether it hurt the woman or not since the camera angle was mainly facing her back and they couldn't see her facial feature. Honestly, that was poor service for the people watching it. If Lance had paid to see it, he would've been a bit mad that it was only focused on the foreigner.

However, he didn't pay so he had no reason to be mad.

"...Yeah. We've won worse battles after all." Lance mumbled as a small smile tugged on his face at the memories. The doubt was slowly starting to fade away as the memories kept climbing back into his brain. He was right, they had faced worse battles before. They had been betrayed, even by one of their lions, they have fought Galra and came out winners before.

Even if they didn't have any lions with them, Lance's faith in them was growing. He started to feel guilty for doubting them. They were apart of Voltron and they would be able to get through it.

He believed in her.

* * *

She was starting to get tired. No matter how hard Pidge hit her, she could take it. She barely even seemed fazed by any of the attacks Pidge had thrown at her. True, there weren't many, but they were well thought out. She aimed for direct places that took time to get to, but she made sure to put in a lot of strength at each attack. Yet, it didn't matter.

Pidge was lucky that the woman attacking her was fairly slow and seemed to be a little dumb, but Pidge wasn't made of energy. She couldn't keep dodging forever.

Part of her started to curse Allura for leaving her, for just running instead of doing something. Allura wasn't supposed to be a moron, she couldn't attacked while Kisna was down or had some kind of plan. Pidge couldn't help but be disappointed in Allura for her cowardly run, yet she didn't seem to be surprised by it either.

Pidge grumbled as a hard knock to the chest flew her back a few feet while she was distracted. She didn't go as high as Allura had on the first attack, but the pain jolting in Pidge's back wasn't something she could ignore either. It had felt as if a knife stabbed her in the spine and wouldn't come it. It couldn't come out, it felt stuck. However, the back of her shirt didn't feel wet so she knew she wasn't stabbed otherwise there would had been at least some blood.

Though the thought of no having been stabbed was comforting, it didn't stop the pain that only got worse with each second it remained.

Grunting, Pidge put her hands behind her and started to push herself up. The aching and sharp pain in her back screamed at the slightest movement by her hands until Pidge gave into the pain and lowered her hands back down, laying on the ground.

"Looks like you're done dodging now, hm?" The woman asked, standing over Pidge as she stared down at her. Her body was tense, but she made no moves towards Pidge. She didn't attempt to knock her out or anything of the sort. Instead, she just...watched Pidge. Whether she was trying to taunt Pidge or not, she couldn't tell.

Pidge grunted as a reply, her eyes meeting the woman's to make sure she knew that Pidge wasn't giving up. Even if she laid on the ground with the feeling of a knife in her back, she wouldn't give up. Because giving up on Keith would be just as bad as giving up on her family.

The woman glared at Pidge's grunt, taking a few steps closer to Pidge. After getting to where Pidge's waist was from the side, the girl bent over so her face was hovering over Pidge's. "Why bother trying?" She asked with a frown smothered on her lips.

"Why not?" Pidge replied, her eyes locking onto the woman's instinctively. It was one of the many lessons known around the galaxy. Do not let your enemy see weakness. If you have, then you've already lost the battle.

"It's futile. You're feeble and completely over powered." The woman replied, her red locks dipping over the side of her head and falling near Pidge's face.

Pidge stayed silent that time, not having a sassy comeback.

"Does a chintrup have your tongue?" The woman smirked. Her eyes glared down at Pidge, a sense of mischief in her eyes but at the same time there was a sense of boredom lurking around as well. She was...bored.

"A what?" Pidge questioned before shaking her head, deciding that the question wasn't worth it.

The woman opened her mouth to speak, but her words were cut short as something smacked into her and pushed her over.

She rolled over a few times and was unmoving when she after she stopped. Pidge couldn't tell if she was knocked out or just in shock since whatever hit her wasn't showing. Or it wasn't there.

The thought of paranormal activity ran through Pidge's mind for a second before she spotted the white bun dangling in nothing. The white bun of hair.

"A...Allura?" Pidge questioned, her eyebrow arching as she stared at the hair bun. She wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to think.

"Yes." The bun nodded but there was a few blue specks underneath it, belonging to eyes. "I changed the colour of my skin to blend in with the background." she exclaimed and it took Pidge a moment to realize that she was holding a hand out for her. Reluctantly, Pidge grabbed onto where she believed her hand was. She was able to grab onto it, much to her luck.

"I know you're mad at me but we're not going to able to fight these people alone." Allura stated while helping pull Pidge up. The pain in Pidge's back screamed at her, forcing her to wince, but the girl kept going. Even with the pain in her back, she stood up straight despite how much she wanted to scream. Keith was depending on her.

"Yeah..." she mumbled, agreeing with Allura.

A small smile tugged at Allura's lips, showing her bright white teeth. "Good. Now let's think up a plan strategy." she said.

"Right." Pidge nodded, pushing away all the crude thoughts she had of Allura...but there was one that stood out quite clearly in her head. "I just have one question..." she murmured while staring at Allura's face, "Are you...naked?"


	26. Chapter 26

Even with her completely black skin, a flush of red made an appearance on Allura's cheeks at Pidge's blunt question. "W-What?" she asked with an astonished and surprised tone but Pidge could tell from her eyes what the answer was.

"Your suit can't change colours." Pidge pointed out, making sure to keep eye contact with her despite the fact that they were both girls, "So...you have to be naked."

"Don't say it so loud..." Allura mumbled, embarrassed as her eyes fell to the ground.

"But...was it really necessary?" Pidge asked as a frown grew on her lips. Worse thoughts popped up about Allura in her head and she didn't even try to fight them that time. She just agreed.

However, she was still in agreement with Allura that they would had to work together. Their enemies were both strong and intimidating, they would need to out number them to try and beat them. Single them out.

Luckily, the woman still believed that she was chasing Allura so she was far away. That meant they could take out the one against Pidge first.

"Bitch." The woman grumbled, still laying on the ground but she was starting to push herself up. She didn't look too hurt, just stunned from the random attack that she received. Yet the shock she had gotten from it started to rub off.

"Distract her." Allura whispered to Pidge, keeping her voice low enough so the other couldn't hear. "I'll get her from behind okay?" she stated.

"I'll try." Pidge assured and moved over to the side, the sharp pain surfacing again which forced her to wince. Allura noticed it, but she didn't comment on it. Pidge had a feeling that wasn't a good thing, causing more bad thoughts about Allura to be formed. She was able to move them over to the side but it still ticked at the back of her mind, clawing at her brain. It wanted to be free.

As the woman stood, she charged for Pidge again. She wasn't fast and gave the girl enough time to dodge. Yet, she didn't dodge too much. The jabbing pain in her back prevented her from moving around too much. She was grateful that she moved out of the way of the charge though, she had a feeling that it wouldn't have ended well for her.

"We're playing this dance again?" The woman grumbled after stopping her charge and turning her head over to Pidge. Her eyes had more venom and rage than she did before...That was certain.

Pidge stared the woman directly in the eyes, keeping her mouth shut and taking a step back. The pain in her back was starting to dull a bit as if she had lost her nerves there. It wasn't a good comfort to have, but she felt a bit grateful that she didn't have to worry about the pain as much. At least not at that moment.

The woman took a deep breath then glared at Pidge again before charging at her. She was still slow, but she kept her eyes up more. Her feet legs were loosened and ready to step in any direction Pidge would go to dodge her.

Pidge took a step back again, putting more distance between them. Her mind raced threw the possiblilities on where she could go. Which direction to dodge in. None of them felt like they would be able to help Pidge out. Not when the woman was so ready at least. Her eyes darted around the area around her, searching for a floating white bun. There was none.

In a quick panic from the ongoing girl, Pidge crouched down. She crouched down far right before the woman slammed into her.

Her feet jabbed into Pidge's stomach and flipped her over, but the woman flew over Pidge as well. Instead of landing on the ground, she went forward a little bit before she ended up flying back. As if something hard hit her.

With a grunt, Pidge brought her eyes up to see the floating white hair bun in front of her. Part of her wanted to smile but the venomous part of her that kept growing forced it away.

Her eyes turned back over to the woman, watching her carefully. She wasn't too far away and she was laying on her back so Pidge could see her better. The woman's eyes were closed and her stomach move up and down to indicate she was breathing, but that was the only movement Pidge saw. She just stayed laying on the ground, presumed the be passed out.

Pidge's eyes fell on Allura again, taking a minute to find her. Allura just gave her a nod. The white haired girl walked over to Pidge and held out a hand, the only thing showing that she was smiling were her white teeth.

Though hesitant, Pidge brought her hand up and accepted the help from Allura. The moment she was standing, her body winced in pain again but the pain didn't linger for long. It quickly dulled up again.

"Now let's get the other one." Allura exclaimed and Pidge nodded, more confidence running through her veins.

* * *

Maybe it was easy the first time because the opponent was weaker. Maybe it was just beginner's luck. Whatever it was, Allura wanted it back.

It felt almost impossible for the two to work together. Even trying to find out where Kisna went had been more than a challenge than it should've been. Allura wanted to go left but Pidge would insist to keep going forward. Neither of them could decide with way to go and they couldn't resolve it. They were close to just splitting up, but Kisna found them instead.

Fighting...Was much harder than finding her. They couldn't coordinate each other's attacks. Allura would give Pidge a signal to go left or to distract but Pidge would do the opposite. The white haired girl couldn't tell if that was some language barrier or not. She silently hoped it was.

As the failed attacks went on, Pidge got slower. Her dodges weren't any better and she winced whenever her back moved a certain way. She hadn't been able to hide it either. Since Allura concealed herself, she would throw sneak attacks at Kisna. For that to happen, Kisna needed something to lay her eyes on instead. That made Pidge the human punching bag and when she noticed the pain Pidge was in, she used it to her advantage.

Allura had thrown more attacks in to try and give Pidge a break but Kisna didn't falter at any of them. Possibly a little injured, but none that would take her down. Allura didn't expect to take her down in only a few hits, but it she had been hopeful.

A short yell fell out of Pidge's lips as she fell back again, only a few steps. Allura could clearly see Kisna was holding back her attacks. Holding back her strength. Kisna had thrown Allura across the abyss with a single blow yet only staggered Pidge back a bit.

She was playing with Pidge.

Allura charged towards Kisna again, not caring about stealth that time since Kisna wasn't even looking at her. She was too focused on beating up Pidge.

Allura's fist collided with Kisna's stomach, throwing a whole lot of force in it. The attack forced Kisna over to the side, away from Pidge. She staggered a little, slightly dazed from the unexpected blow but she brushed it off quick. Her eyes moving upwards at a fast pace to see Pidge, who stumbled to get away from the alien that used her as a punching bag.

Kisna didn't move as fast as Allura knew she could. Instead, she made eye contact with Allura despite the cloak of her own skin she bore. Their eyes made contact for a brief moment, Allura moving to get ready for an attack, but Kisna didn't fight her. A smirk tugged at Kisna's lips before she ran after Pidge again.

Pidge was slow, limping and wincing as she attempted to get away from Kisna, to put some space in between them. She wasn't stupid though, she knew it was hopeless but at the moment standing there and taking a beating wasn't helping either. Her brain couldn't think straight if she was getting hit in the stomach every few seconds, the pain would only cloud her mind. She only wanted a little bit of time to think since the 'teamwork' they had attempted at wasn't working well. Pidge blamed Allura for it.

The vile thoughts tried to be the main attention in Pidge's brain during the few moments she had to think, but she pushed it away again. She knew they wouldn't be gone forever but at the moment they were unneeded and unwanted.

The precious moments Pidge had passed quickly as her legs crumbled below her from an attack to the back of her knees. She didn't have anytime to think as her knees fell to the ground of darkness and her body toppled over beside it. Her eyes glanced up to see Kisna standing behind her, towering over her with a smirk on her face.

"You're pathetic, human." She exclaimed yet made no other move towards Pidge. The girl on the ground let out a grunt of pain and attempted to move over slightly, to take the pressure off her pain back. Kisna didn't allow it and stomped on the back of Pidge's hand to make sure Pidge knew that.

That she knew who was really in charge.

Pidge kept her mouth shut, holding back a snarky comment that wished to spring forth from her lips. If Pidge had the other hand, perhaps she'd say it. Even if she didn't have the other hand, as long as they were still fighting and Pidge wasn't pinned to the ground. Saying it while pinned to the ground was just nuts. Only Lance was that stupid.

"Weak little being." Kisna stated as she pulled her foot off of Pidge's hand and brought it down by her side again. "You're truly nothing more than insects. It's strange that this Altean has taken a liking to you."

"It was more the lion that did.." Pidge grumbled, holding back something else in her mind that was bugging her. The enemy didn't need to know it.

"Lion of Voltron?" Kisna growled, her glare becoming more vengeful than irked by the second.

Pidge stayed quiet that time, letting Kisna get the answer herself.

"You _murderer._ " she spat at Pidge and went to smash her foot down on her hand again but something stopped her. A hand, a cloaked hand, grabbed Kisna's knee and stopped her assault. Rage had fueled Kisna's mind, unable to comprehend what was happening as it should've, so Allura knocked her to the ground.

The woman tumbled to the side, rolling over a few times from the strength she used. Allura didn't even try to boost herself as Kisna fell, she knew the only reason she actually got Kisna was because she was distracted. She was blinded with rage for whatever reason she had.

It took moments before Kisna was up again but Allura had already gotten Pidge up. She had grabbed onto Pidge's wrist and pulled her alongside her to help give Pidge a little more speed. Though she seemed to be pretty hesitant about being touched by Allura considering the wince, she didn't fight it. They had their differences but at that moment, they were on the same page. Save Keith, save Voltron, and save the universe.

Pidge grunted a little as she forced her pace to speed up, following Allura as Allura ran but not away again. She was circling Kisna with Pidge trailing behind her. Kisna noticed it right away and stayed where she was standing. Her eyes followed the two, tracing each step that they made but she didn't make any of her own moves. She just stayed watching but with a harsh glare. A glare full of rage and venom. A glare full of bloodlust.

"What's the plan?" Pidge whispered, trying to keep her voice low so Kisna didn't know that Pidge was unaware.

"Just go with the flow." Allura whispered back, a smile peeking at her lips As the gears in her head turned. Gears that turned but were as invisible as her skin.

Pidge frowned at the reply but didn't question it though she hated not knowing. Kisna might notice Pidge's uncertainty.

The circling continued on a few minutes, Kisna watching their feet. Watching their pacing and keeping track. She didn't pretend she wasn't doing it, she didn't try to hide it. She was watching like a hawk watches their prey. She was planning.

It started to slow a tiny bit, Allura's blue orbs watching Kisna back. The gears in her head had seemed to stop turning though.

"You don't know what you're doing, do you?" Pidge mumbled with a frown, getting the hint after circling for Kisna for longer than expected.

Allura didn't answer her, but she did glance back at Pidge, her eyes telling her that the circling was a spur of the moment. Whilst holding back a sigh, Pidge just nodded at Allura and glanced back at Kisna, her mind racing through possibilities.

After selecting one that seemed both efficient and easier, Pidge started to whisper the plan. She kept her voice more quiet than she normally had so Kisna couldn't hear, but she wasn't sure if Allura could hear either. She looked for any signs of acknowledgement for what was said. It wasn't there at first but Allura made quick eye contact with Pidge, which Pidge hoped was a sign.

So Pidge let go of Allura's hand so she was running the circles on her own. Without Allura dragging her, she was surprisingly slower. She was barely at the same pace of Allura's jog. Considering how fast they may have been going before, Pidge was glad her adrenaline was up so she wouldn't feel the soreness in her legs. Not yet at least.

As Allura disappeared from sight, Kisna looked around, trying to spot the Altean. Pidge didn't know for sure whether she did or not but she had a feeling that Kisna didn't spot her considering the frown on her face.

As Pidge ran in circles, a surge of electricity like pain shot through her back, forcing her to wince again. The pain quickly numbed down again, Pidge was grateful for it but she knew it would suck later, but the wince made her remarkably more slow. Kisna noticed it too.

It was almost instantly, Pidge barely had a chance to stop before getting clobbered by Kisna. The woman charged for Pidge, but not where she was exactly. Instead Kisna changed for where Pidge was going to go, which was exactly what she wanted.

The stop happened faster than Pidge expected it to, she was almost worried that she wouldn't. The woman fell backwards, onto the sore part of her back and she bit her teeth but made no sound. Her attention fell onto the woman in front of her, about to stop her own charge as she spotted Pidge on the ground. But to Pidge's delight, the plan worked and Allura who had kept her eyes closed and hair back to stay camoflauged, appeared in front of Kisna and punched her.

The punch was stronger than Pidge expected, which was good. No it was great. Kisna flew back a few feet before slamming into the ground. It sounded like she'd feel it in the morning too. For some reason, that made Pidge happy.

A victorious smile tugged on her lips as she forced herself up but her knees gave out. The sudden ache from all the running took away any strength she may have had in her legs and she tumbled to the ground.

"Pidge..." Allura mumbed, her tone sounding worried as she walked to the girl, "She's getting up."

Pidge's smile fell at the mere words and she brought her gaze over to Kisna where she was indeed standing up. She barely looked scared but the rage in her eyes had gotten a lot worse.

She took a moment to glare at them before charging.

Then Pidge swore. Pidge swore a lot.


	27. Chapter 27

The scene shifted. The area they were in changed again. It happened in a matter of seconds that it was hard for the brain to adjust to the surroundings. But that didn't make Kisna stop her charge of death.

Seconds before contact, a hand reached over and was held in front of Allura, pushing Kisna back without even touching her.

The force was strong enough to blow Kisna back a few feet but she stayed standing when she landed. Yet she didn't charge again. She took a moment to glance around at her surroundings, taking in what had happened, then brought her eyes to Atalanta who stopped the attack.

"What are you doing?" she hissed at the woman but made no move towards the two.

"You lost the moment your partner was out of the challenge but I still wanted to see if Allura and Pidge could win." Atalanta exclaimed, her eyes harsh and her voice stern, "They would've won anyways but I wanted to see if they could win the actual challenge."

"What challenge?" Allura asked as she raised an eyebrow. The fact that she was naked in the arena, though it was still hard to distinguish certain features because of her appearance, had not yet reached her brain but Pidge noticed it right away. As did the two other Voltron members watching. One looked away, one did not. The one that did not also had some blood drizzling down his nostril.

"This is a challenge about team work." Atalanta explained, turning her attention over to Allura but she didn't let her guard down about Kisna. "You were all infused with a certain chemical that affects your hormones and makes you more angry and irritated than normal."

Gears shifted into Pidge's head until certain things clicked in her head. The nasty thoughts and words that slipped through her weren't from her. She couldn't help but be relieved at the fact but she didn't have much to react to her statement before Atalanta continued on.

"I did say at the beginning that each member of the team has to be standing for them to win." she explained while her attention switched over to Kisna instead, "Your partner fell because she was ganged up on and you were no where in sight."

"I was searching for the cowardly Altean." KIsna hissed venoumously.

"Who was attacking your partner." Atalanta pointed out, unphased by the hiss.

"That's her own problem." Kisna grumbled while giving Atalanta a short glare but when she returned the glare, Kisna brought her eyes down to the ground instead. Whether it was from shame or fear, Pidge couldn't tell. She did figure out that it was really funny to watch though. And she didn't feel guilty for smiling at the girl.

"No it was your problem too." Atalanta stated as she let out an exasperated sigh, annoyed with her. "That was the whole point of the challenge. If one of your team is down then you cannot win. I believed that was clear."

"And you infused us with the chemical to make it harder." Pidge mumbled, grateful that the nasty thoughts weren't hers even though they still circulated in her head but also a bit violated. She was drugged without consent. The nasty thoughts quickly moved over to Atalanta instead of Allura.

Pidge couldn't tell if that was good or not.

"Yes. I suppose. A bit more complicated than that but that's the main point of it." Atalanta nodded and shrugged a little.

Allura frowned beside Pidge, glaring over at Atalanta but she changed her direction when she looked back. The chemical they were infused with hadn't yet left their system, though she wasn't sure why she expected it to.

"And you guys were able to to do the real challenge as well so I suppose I can give you guys an extra reward." Atalanta exclaimed with a light nod, gesturing over to the people holding Keith's cage. "Bring him over." she ordered.

The women didn't think twice as she started rolling Keith's hard core cage over to the them. Atalanta nodded to them when they got closer and they took out a key. One of them unlocked it while the other opened the door and Keith staggered out. He kept a stern expression stretched across his face as he walked out. There were a few scratches on his bare chest and larger bruises on his legs but he appeared to be okay.

Better than Pidge, who grasped onto Allura's shoulder to stay up. With the adrenaline passing by, the pain stopped being as numb for Pidge and became almost unbearable to keep standing. Allura frowned and helped her to stay up, needing to get back to the ship so Pidge could get help. There was debate on asking Atalanta but she didn't know the doctors on the world and they didn't have many humans. If something was seriously wrong, Allura didn't want to have to wait for some inexperienced doctor to tell her that. She'd rather get her to the healing pad.

Keith glanced over at them and let out a sigh before he headed over. "Is she okay?" was his first question when he made it over, his eyes landing on Pidge with a frown.

Pidge nodded before Allura could object to it. The expression on Keith's face showed that he didn't believe the girl but he didn't argue it. Not verbally at least, Keith wasn't always a verbal fighter. Instead, he moved over to Pidge and reached over. Allura didn't fight him as he slipped his hands around Pidge before lifting her up bridal style.

"Come on, we need to get Pidge to help." Keith exclaimed as he looked over at Allura, ignoring Atalanta.

"I still have another reward for you." Atalanta said as her eyes stayed focused on Allura but she didn't ignore Keith. She acknowledged his words but she would speak to Allura as if she was the Alpha.

"Pidge needs help." Keith repeated with a frown.

"Get her to a healer, I'll stay." Allura said to him, certain that the chemicals didn't run out. Had she been feeling right, she would've gotten Pidge help right away. Yet... She was more interested in the second reward. Besides, could the doctors really do anything for her?

"There are some healers tending to the other fallen." Atalanta exclaimed as she gestured towards the girls laying on the ground. Some were awake but unmoving while others were being carried out on stretchers or finding their own way back. Keith glanced around at the healers but most of them were busy. That wasn't too big of a problem for him, he wasn't shy but if people really needed the attention he didn't want to interrupt it. That didn't mean he wanted Pidge to wait any less.

"They might not know much about Earth anatomy." Allura instructed Keith, the excuse she had used to herself earlier for not getting Pidge help slipping from her lips.

"We've still gotta try until we get to the ship." Keith exclaimed and glanced around the area.

When he spotted a person getting help but she didn't seem to need it, Keith went over there. Though the healer was uninterested with the male, Keith kept on insisting that she check out Pidge first. The healer had started to get pissed at the male for thinking he could order her around but when the healer looked up, she saw that he was holding a woman in his arms. She allowed Keith to lay her down so she could check Pidge out but lectured him on being polite and he got lucky that time.

Keith had to stop himself from attacking.

"Anyways." Atalanta exclaimed as she turned her gaze back to Allura as the healer went to work on Pidge. "The second part of your reward is-"

A dark shadow raining over the arena cut Atalanta off as she and the others brought their gaze up to see what was there. A castle, a giant flying castle. Then there was the familiar voice.

"LET PRINCESS ALLURA AND THE OTHERS GO OR I DESTROY YOUR PLANET!"


	28. Chapter 28

It took a while to convince Coran that they were okay and in no harm. Truthfully, they weren't completely convinced of it themselves but they'd rather him not blow up the entire planet. However, after Atalanta explained to Allura what the second reward was, she was much more confident in their safety. As Coran found a safe place to land, the others met up there. Shiro had boarded the ship with Coran before they headed to the arena on Shiro's instruction.

Coran was pleased to see them and attempted to hug Keith, who swiftly dodged, but Coran didn't stop. He went to get the other paladins, except for Pidge who was still in Keith's arms though transferred to Shiro. Hunk allowed for he hug and hugged him back but Lance was caught, forced into a hug.

"Hello Coran." Allura smiled when she saw the mustache man heading for her but he didn' for a hug. Instead he gave her a polite bow which made Lance whine about having to get a hug. Coran ignored him as he stepped aside for Allura to walk.

Allura gave him a smile and a nod before walking past and into the familiar ship. She glanced back at Atalanta who had accompanied them back to the ship. She had a comforting feeling of relief floating through her stomach but also one of guilt.

The relief had come first, and she was glad it stayed, because of the second reward but after Atalanta explained why Kisna was so against her and Voltron. Why Kisna had called them horrible names and wanted Allura especially dead, the guilt came. Horrible guilt. At first, she was actually angry at Kisna but Atalanta gave her a pill to get rid of the hormones, which it did, and the rage turned to guilt.

According to Atalanta, Kisna blamed Voltron and Alteans for the murder of her wife.

"Those clothes look nice on you, Princess." Coran complimented, in a friendly way, and gave her a sparkling thumbs up. When the it was brought to Allura's attention at the arena that she was naked, Atalanta had provided her with clothes. A light blue dress that clung to her body with a white ribbon around the waist. She couldn't deny that it was pretty and suited her well, but she had wanted her old clothes back. With all the bodies around, they weren't able to find it though. It was lost within the sea of people.

"Thank you." Allura smiled again as she glanced at Coran, the aura of cheer never leaving his side. She was grateful to have him around, he was always there to make her and the others smile. Sometimes she wondered if he did it on purpose or not. She believed sometimes he did but other times it was just by accident. It was just because he was able to be himself.

"Pidge is hurt." Allura added in as she walked into the ship and gave Atalanta a wave. Extropa was no where to be seen, having disappears at the last challenge. However, when they walked back to the ship Allura noticed a distinctive lock of hair on Lance's shoulder which got her thinking but she pushed the thoughts away quickly. No way could anything have happened there.

She hoped.

"Well we better get her to a healing pad then!" Coran exclaimed enthusiastically ,despite the situation, but his words weren't needed. Keith was already heading to the pod.

"I agree." Allura smiled at him as she made her way into the castle fully. She glanced back a bit through the opening to see anything but Atalanta was gone. Though she had been stern, in the end she ended up being kind to Allura and Pidge. Whether she agreed or not, Allura could tell that she at least gave them respect and that was more than what the others had given them. It was...nice.

"Let's get the ship up and running." Coran exclaimed as he watched Allura stare for a bit. The white haired girl brought her attention over to Coran again, barely acknowledging what he said but nodded anyways.

"I should explain what happened as well." Allura added in as the words finally reached her head and she started heading to the main foyer of the ship with Coran beside her. It didn't take long for her to get there and thankfully, they were all there. Hunk and Keith were setting Pidge up in the pod as Shiro went around to make sure everyone else was okay as well.

"Is everyone okay?" Allura answered, to no one in general, and Shiro gave her a nod after he finished checking Lance for any serious wounds. "Good." Allura smiled and nodded back before glancing at the others. Hunk and Keith successfully placed Pidge in the healing pod and got it set up for the girl before they turned their attention over to Allura. Hunk was fine while Keith seemed pissed, but he always seemed to be pissed.

"So Atalanta told me for our second reward, if we so desire, we are able to have her back up for the war against the Galra. That does not mean the whole planet but she said she had many followers that can aid us."

Shiro was the first to speak while it sunk into the other's hands. "That's good but don't they hate males?" Shiro questioned out of curiousity.

"Not Atalanta. She doesn't respect them and knows she's better than them but she doesn't hate them. She accepts them as people." Allura explained, summing up what Atalanta had told her, "But that's why we can't get the whole planet to help. Not everyone thinks the same way she does."

"Thank goodness." Lance let out a sigh and Shiro smacked him lightly for cutting Allura off.

"Some do think worse." Allura pointed out before going on, "And if we end up there again...as long as you boys stay in the ship you won't be captured again. At least not legally."

"I never want to come here again!" Hunk exclaimed dramatically while Keith nodded in agreement. Shiro held no opinion so he didn't agree or disagree but Lance shook his head.

"I can't say I agree, pal. There were some mighty fine looking ladies there." He exclaimed and gave Allura a flirty, the sparkling, smile. She just ignored him, since she was quite used to it, before going on. "Okay you guys should rest now." Allura instructed as she looked around at them. Though they didn't show it, she had a feeling that they were as exhausted as she was. Not that she allowed herself to show it either. "Coran and I will try and get to our next destination." she stated.

Though hesitant about the resting part, Shiro gave in without any arguement and nodded. "Allura's right." he started before going on, "We probably do need our rest. But..." he paused and turned his attention over to Allura instead, "So do you."

"I'm fine." Allura answered quickly and sternly to try and make sure he wouldn't suggest it again. Her legs felt like lead ands shehad to fight to keep her eyes open but she had to stay up. Her work wasn't done, even if they had finally got out of that planet.

"Princess Allura." Coran frowned as he glanced over at her, "You really should rest." he informed her as the others started nodding in agreement.

"I can rest later. I need to help you." she stated, arguing with Coran even though he stayed cheerful.

"But you really don't." he countered her with a light sigh, "I can do it by myself. And if I really need to, then I'll go get you but for now can you rest please? You'll be able to help more if you just rest."

Hesitance lingered around in her head as she watched Coran. Her mind needed to be active, she didn't want to think about what was spoken before. She didn't want to doubt herself when they had come so far. Yet there was no more denying that she was tired. It was written out on her face, any sane person could see it.

Before her mind could decide against it, her body spoke up for her. "Okay..." her lips mumbled without the consent of her brain.

Coran nodded at his achievement and placed his hand on her shoulder. It was comforting, like a father's touch. Allura was grateful to always have him there.

Getting to her room was like a blur. If people talked, she didn't remember it. She didn't remember the route she took, anything that she passed. It was all a haze in her memory. The moment her head touched her soft, purple pillow, her entire conciousness left her.

/

Fire. There was so much fire. Screaming occupied the bright flames as they engulfed each house, taking any living soul that stayed within.

The colours of the flames changed. Some times they were red, some were yellow, but some were green or blue. The most terrifying of the flames was black. Black as midnight. No sympathy lingered within the flames and no mercy was given as it devoured everything in sight. Alive or not, the fire would consume it.

Yet in the midst of the fire, within each deadly flame. There was the face of one she knew all too well. The face of Voltron.

/

With a pounding heart, she woke up with a jolt. Her mind was racing and her body was relentless, shaking without being ordered to. Fear and panic raced through her veins as her mind started to wake up. As it started to remember.

Yet even when her memory and mind returned to her once sleeping body, the fear and panic never left her. It stayed and formed a knot in her stomach as she glanced around the room. The familiar room, the comfortable room.

With a sigh, the memories never leaving her head, Allura forced herself out of bed. Her body remained groggy, but her mind would not allow itself to go back to sleep. Not with the memories and the knot etched into her stomach.

Her nightgown was a little lacy and pink, not exactly one she would want the boys to see. Though she knew Lance would love it. So she wrapped a nice, fluffy purple robe around her and she felt her body relax lightly inside of it. It begged for rest again, but her mind declined.

As she sighed, she wrapped her hand around the door knob to her room and pulled it open. Though her vision still a little hazy, she stepped out of the room and started to walk. Where she was heading to first, she wasn't entirely sure so her legs picked for her, bringing her to main hall where Coran worked.

"Hello Princess Allura." He greeted when he saw her, a nice smile on his lips as he glanced at her before bringing his attention back to the controls in front of him. "Did you enjoy your nap?" He asked.

"I did." Allura nodded and walked over to him, curious as to what he was working on.

"What are you doing?" she questioned.

"Just checking up all the systems, making sure everything is up to date." He answered, glancing back again before turning his attention to the system again. Allura nodded at his answer, opening her mouth to ask another question but something appeared at the corner of her eye. The healing pad. The empty healing pad.

"Is Pidge better?" Allura asked as a frown slipped onto her lips.

"Yeah we took her out not too long ago. She's in the kitchen with the boys, I think Hunk said he was going to try to and cook us all up a meal." Coran replied but didn't take his eyes off the ship again, "You should go check on them." he suggested.

"Yeah..." Allura mumbled though hesitant. The dream lingered in her head still. She hadn't known what had happened before, why Kisna believed Voltron destroyed her family.

But she had a feeling the Galra had something to do with it. Even so, there was a worry within her veins that it could happen again. That history would repeat itself and not for the better. Like that ever happened...

"Yeah..." Allura repeated again, trying to force confidence within her body with her own words but it didn't work very well. Nonetheless, she turned around and started to head to the kitchen despite her racing heart.

It wasn't a long walk, but it was long enough to have the thoughts spiral around in her mind. She couldn't push the thoughts away, nothing seemed to let her. They would just stay, never wishing to fade away.

With a shaky breath, Allura pushed on the door to the kitchen, watching as it slowly opened. As the door was pushed back, everything came into her view.

Goop. Green goop was scattered out in the room. Everything was covered in it, there was no mercy for any around. But it wasn't just the green goop either. There were little blue balls, purple leaves, and a shiny neon yellow liquid spread about, accompanying the goops.

Not even the people were safe from the goop. Hunk laid on the floor with a defeated look, the yellow liquid and green goop covering his once brown hair. Pidge was trying to use his body to hide but every once and a while some would scatter onto her as well.

Three boys were left standing, one on the right side and two on the other side as if they've formed a team. Shiro and Keith were together while Lance was alone.

"You traitors!" Lance accused as he held a plate of green goop, aiming it at Keith but he didn't let it fly just yet.

"Traitors? We're not traitors!" Keith yelled back at him, "If anything you're the traitor!"

"How am I the traitor?" Lance huffed before launching the goop at the Keith, letting it fly through the air. Keith merely moved his head a little to the side to dodge it, leaving Lance without a weapon.

"You turned on your own team member!" Shiro exclaimed and gestured to Hunk who laid on the floor, his eyes closed but not dead. Still breathing at least.

"We weren't team members!" Lance exclaimed, "There was no team! Just survival!"

"Then you can't really call them traitors either..." Pidge murmurred and Lance gave her an annoyed glare because she chose their side.

"I guess we have to take him out now." Keith murmurred and glanced back at Shiro, who nodded in agreement.

Before Allura was able to comprehend what had happened, what was going on, the two acted.

They were swift and fast, faster than Lance. He tried to escape, he tried to run, he tried to get away from them. But his attempt was futile and took only moments before his entire body was covered with in the green goop. Shiro and Keith gave mercy as they drenched their comrade in it.

"Nooo!" Lance exclaimed and tried to shoo them away but they were glued there, unmoving.

As the last of their assault dripped down his body, the two attackers took a step back with laughter flying through their lips. "And that's why you don't use someone as a shield for your own mess." Shiro exclaimed with his smile still on his face before his gaze landed on Allura. "Oh hey, how long have you been standing there?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow, noticing her horrified expression, "You okay?"

"Fine..." Allura mumbled quickly as she shook her head. She took a few deep breaths as she allowed her heart to calm down, to realize the situation. As she beating heart slowed, a smile found its way onto her lips, "I'm great."

The nightmare and doubts slipped away from her mind as she looked at the scene, at the crazy scene. The crazy but loveable seen.

This wasn't going to be what happened last time, Allura could tell. None could betray her and the others.

But she also knew that they wouldn't end up as someone like Kisna. That no matter what happened, they would continue being happy for her sake. For their own sakes.

As her laughter echoed through the room, her smile only grew, "I'm great!"


End file.
